I am a Baltimorean from a long line of Baltimoreans, a professional recipe developer, and an author of several cookbooks. I have a BA in History from the University of Baltimore and an MD in Education in Education.
While I have created recipes for dozens of national brands and for publications such as the Baltimore Sun, the Washington Post, Food52, and Parade Magazine, I have a great personal interest in regional foods and food history and have been recreating “lost” and regional recipes and sharing them, among thousands of other dishes, on my award-winning recipe blog (coconutandlime.com) for nearly two decades.
For the 2022-2023 cycle, I applied for and received a Maryland Folklife Apprenticeship grant (supported in part by the Maryland State Arts Council) as a master of my field and together with my apprentice, Kara Mae Harris created a spiral-bound book of recipes we found in community cook books and archives around the state. I selected and “modernized” the recipes and Harris tried to research the lives of the women who contributed the original recipes, much like she does on her blog, Old Line Plate.
As a recipe developer, this project was my first time adapting other people’s recipes! That was very new and different for me.
It ended up being a lot of fun and during my many solo travels around the state researching the recipes, I collected a lot of community cookbooks. I started seeing them everywhere and adding books to my collection beyond the borders of Maryland.
Eventually, it became clear that I needed to start this site so I can share my collection and the recipes I’m updating. I’m starting off small but I hope you enjoy what’s here.
Please contact me with any questions, recipe requests or if you have any community cookbooks you’d like to donate and see featured.