I’m a mom first and foremost! I have four kids, and they keep me very busy. I’m a wife, too, which is a huge priority. I love to bake and fell into this whole blogging world almost six years ago. I’ve taken it full-time during the day now that my kids are in school.

A friend of mine works at General Mills and he had heard that Gold Medal Flour was looking for a blogger and everyday baker. He told me to apply and at first I said, “Well, I’ve never blogged. I’ve never taken a picture of my food. How is that going to work?!” And he was like “No, really, they’re just looking for an everyday mom in the kitchen creating recipes for her kids. Just play around with the camera and see what you can do.” The application required you to create a blog with two recipes and step-by-step instructions with photos. They ended up choosing me!

I was exclusive to them for the first two years. The Baker Mama was built into the GMF website as its own tab. I created the name, they helped me create the logos and everything. After those two years, I branched out because I wanted to create more than just flour recipes, and I wanted to give them the opportunity to bring on other bloggers to contribute. 

I try to make two to three new meals a week and reinvent the leftovers. I also have very easy, quick to the table ideas and ingredients on-hand that are good for throwing together. Think grilled cheese hot dogs, spaghetti…

My mom was a home ec teacher, so she cooked homemade meals every single night. She taught me to be pretty adventurous from the get go. She made these stews with vegetables, chicken and dumplings, everything from scratch.

My kids love these black bean and turkey tacos. They love pizza toast and breakfast for dinner (pancakes, avocado toast, eggs, bacon, toast, waffles).

Their favorite desserts are brownies and any sort of cookies. I make these yummy M&M pudding cookies or just good ol’ chocolate chip cookies.

Our kids aren’t perfect eaters by any means, but our rule is to just try it! If they really don’t like it, then I’ll make a peanut butter sandwich. But you have to eat the veggies if you want dessert!

For guests:

A huge charcuterie board is one of my go to’s. We’ll do a steak board where Brandon will sous vide the steak and sear it on the pan and serve it with a salad and bread. We’ll make a couple of appetizers ahead of time, like mascarpone filled dates, and put it in the fridge.

Brandon is definitely the more ambitious chef in the family. I’m more quick, easy, simple, family-friendly food. I don’t always follow the recipe. He makes these complicated recipes with a million ingredients, so we balance each other out.

Ever since I got married, we’ve had this huge 22’’ charcuterie board. It lived in the middle of our table for years, up until the kids were a little bit older because they’d spin it all the time. Now that the board is back, our entire meals are served on them. The kids eat so much better when I allow them to build-their-own taco salad, and they get so excited about it. I think it makes our meals more interactive and fun, and there’s no complaining because they get to pick what they want. It’s been a great way to introduce our kids to new foods and take ownership.

I’ve never reached out to a brand because I don’t have the time. Now that the kids are in school I might. There are some influencer networks I’m a part of so brands can see my profile and reach out from there. Sometimes a brand will reach out on their own to chat. My most common partnership is that I create a recipe using their products, put it on my blog and promote on my blog and social networks. I’ll also do giveaways and blog about my experience doing influencer trips — I just recently went to Madison, Wisconsin for a Sub Zero/Wolf collaboration. We toured the facility, met their chefs and learned more about the brand.

I used to post a lot more about the restaurants in town, but my readers are from all over the United States. Most of my followers are from New York City, surprisingly, then Dallas, California, etc.

Sarah from Broma Bakery was partnering with Tillamook cheese and Kroger’s. She put together a weekend for bloggers to come to Detroit and learn more about the brands. We did working sessions, brainstorming both in the blogging world and from a brand’s perspective. I got to reconnect with bloggers I’ve met at other food conferences, meet new ones, and learn from each other, inspire each other. She’s extremely talented! She should have a studio like Pinch of Yum so people can fly in for her workshops in-person.

*Editor’s Note: Check out Sarah’s Foodtography School. I took the Advanced course a few months ago and highly recommend. There’s a new Restaurant Foodtography in the works too. Well worth the investment!

I mostly just use my iPhone 8+. I went on a trip to Italy with a friend, and she was using portrait mode and the shots came out gorgeous. Literally the day after we got back, I got the same iPhone. It’s great for food shots if you have the right light, and just pictures of the kids, and traveling, like all of my recent Peru pictures. The only time I use my big camera is at home when I’m taking pictures of my recipes. For that I use a Canon T4i Rebel. 

I edit them all in iPhoto. I do a little bit of sharpening, brightening and that’s it. Brandon had me download Lightroom or Photoshop, but I’m like nope! I’ve got my little system going.

I remember back in high school, the local donut shop would open at 11 PM. That’s when they started making donuts for the next day. The high schoolers would meet there at 11 and get hot donuts when the doors first opened. Every single Friday night after the football game, we’d go get dinner, go to the donut shop and hang out. That’s just a memory I’ll always have. 

And I remember I would always take one home. Before I drank coffee, I liked my donuts with an iced glass of milk. It had to be in the freezer! So I would go home, pour myself some cold milk…I taught my friends when they came over too.

I remember my husband and I were on a sushi date. We were just driving around and noticed this new donut shop [Top Pot] had opened. Our friends from Seattle told us about it before. Anyway, we had an hour left with our babysitter so we stopped in and loved it. From there, it was just a convenient thing. Big enough to hold our family, sit out on the patio and hang out on a Saturday. It became this weekly tradition.

The Baker Mama holding the infamous Pink Boa donut from Top Pot

Once we became regulars, I noticed the quality was going downhill, which was disappointing because there was no other donut shop within close proximity to our house. I reached out to the owners in Seattle and said, “Hey, I just want to give you a heads up: I don’t want to get anybody in trouble, but here’s what we’re noticing…” He reached back out and really appreciated the feedback. Ever since then, they made some positive changes and we’ve noticed a huge turnaround. The thing is, I’m not a food critic, I’m not here to put people out of business. I’ll only post about restaurants and foods that I truly recommend.

My husband and I met one of the owners, Mark, when we were in Seattle. He came here recently to check in and met up with him again. They’re actually looking to remodel the Hillcrest location to make it look more like the Seattle shops. Top Pot used to make donuts for Starbucks, believe it or not! They were making thousands or donuts and it was just taking away from the quality.

I think it depends on the type of donut, but my two favorites are old fashioned and raised yeast. Old fashioned donuts have to be crispy on the outside with a good crunch; the inside needs to be tender, moist and a little cake-y, but not oily, with a light glaze. Raised needs to be crispy on the outside, melt in your mouth…not where it disappears in your mouth like Krispy Kreme, but still airy.

The general process for making raised donuts is you let it sit for two hours for the first time. Take it out, roll it into the shape, then let it rise again. Then you fry it. Most of the recipes on my blog are the quicker version. The baked donuts have to be looked at as a different entity. One of my most popular recipes is a two-ingredient baked donuts using any cake mix you want — you can do a spice cake mix with pumpkin. I also have a banana bread type donut.

Dallas-Fort Worth:

1. Top Pot
2. Glazed Donut Works: The only problem we have is that there’s no place to sit [at the Deep Ellum location]. We enjoy coming to the donut shops and hanging out. We’ve been to the one in Legacy Hall, but there’s a limited assortment there. Their vanilla bean raised donut is amazing. They’re just very thoughtful and creative donuts. Ingredients are high quality. You can just taste that a chef is making these donuts.
3. Earnest Donuts: They’re just far away
4. FunkyTown
5. Hypnotic Donuts: Love their Peace-statio donut. High quality, crafted donuts.

NYC: 

1. Dough
2. Doughnut Plant
3. Peter Pan Donuts in Brooklyn: Been around forever, old school, hole in the wall classic shop

Portland:

1. Coco Donuts
2. Blue Star
3. Pip’s: Their whole experience is fantastic. Getting the coffee and the donuts served warm, made to order.

Chicago:

1. Doughnut Vault: Old fashioned
2. Do-Rite

Boston:

1. Union Square Donuts
2. Blackbird: We went on the November National Donut Day, which is also my birthday, by the way. I see that as a sign from above! I remember there was a line down the block that day.

California:

1. Russell’s Donuts in Ventura: Hole in the wall. Crumb donut.
2. Sidecar Doughnuts
3. VG Donuts

Before I highly recommend places, I like to go at least twice.

1. The Baker’s Wife: Minneapolis
2. District Doughnuts: New Orleans
3. District Donuts: D.C.
4. Federal Donuts: Philly 
5. Five Daughters Bakery: We need a Nashville trip in general!
6. Ohio Donut Trail looks fun too!

Top Pot reached out to me. I read children’s books to kids, judged a donut eating contest, and hung out. One of the books was called “The Donut Chef” by Bob Staake. It’s about these competing donut shops that start to pile on all the toppings. The main character basically says, “You know what? Let’s go back to the classics. Why do we have to take something that’s so amazing and make it crazy?” If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

My family! Donuts and family time are my most precious times. We’re all happy, we share donuts, cut them up, Brandon and I get some coffee. It’s a family experience that I know we’ll cherish forever.

Yeast vs Cake:

Yeast over traditional cake, but I prefer the cut and fry of an old fashioned overall

Vanilla vs. Chocolate:

Chocolate cake or chocolate old fashioned, but I would prefer a vanilla glaze

Coffee vs. Tea:

Coffee for sure. My go to order is an iced latte. We’re all about the coffee with our donuts!

Thin Crust vs. Deep Dish:

Thin on the bottom, Neapolitan-style with that bubbly crust.

Favorite Movie:

Pitch Perfect and Bad Moms. Especially if I have something to get done at night, like late night blogging, I would put on Pitch Perfect and know all the songs.

Favorite City:

NYC! I’m headed there in October. We’ll have two of the kids with us so it’ll be a mix of eating and entertaining them. We’re also seeing the Lion King.

Favorite Person to Follow on Instagram:

Such a hard question because I follow people for so many different reasons! I follow you to stay up-to-date on donuts, everyday friends to see pictures of their kids and family life. Normal, not crafted pictures makes it refreshing. 

#1 Follow your passion:

The stuff that I love excites and energizes me and I want to do it all the time. When it comes to donuts and boards and baking, that excites me! I share that with people and I think that’s what people enjoy, seeing you do what you love.

#2 Have a user-friendly website:

Easy navigation, easy to sign up for my newsletter, easy to connect with me on social, easy to search for recipes.

#3 Outsource what you don’t like to do.

I chose to outsource Pinterest and Facebook. Pinterest is huge and that’s where most of the traffic to my site comes from. But it’s too time-consuming if you want to do it right. I create the pins, but I have someone who manages the scheduling. I still answer all my Facebook followers’ questions and follow along, but I have someone who helps with the scheduling. I do not, however, give anyone hands to my Instagram! There’s no schedule to that, when I feel like posting I post. I let Twitter go by the wayside. I’ll 

#4 Put stuff out there:

The more content you have, the more people can connect with you. You’ve got to start somewhere too! I think people are so intimidated to post that first recipe because it has to be “perfect.” If you have the content that people are interested in, and you’re excited about it, just put it out there. I know a successful blogger with millions of followers who takes her pictures with an iPhone. If I look back at my first pictures and I’m like “okayyyy…” but I don’t ever want to delete those because that’s my journey and shows where I came from. When I used to do my step-by-step shots, I used to show the bowl with the flour in it, the bowl with the baking soda in it…and you can’t even tell the baking soda was in it, it was a little ridiculous! Now I’ve honed my process and I’m more efficient.

#5 Be yourself:

There’s an audience for everyone. Don’t be afraid that there’s so many food bloggers or so many people making chocolate chip cookies. Do you, share what you love and share your way of doing it.

I’m grateful for opportunity to travel. Coming back from Peru, I’m grateful to see how other people live and how different it us from our everyday lives. It inspires me to be more resourceful with the things we have. People live perfectly happy, beautiful lives who don’t even have money; they work for corn. I’m grateful we have my parents who can watch our kids so we can travel.

Going forward we have a trip to Disney World planned with the family and I’m so excited about that, but also a little bit nervous. We’re bringing my parents so there are extra eyes on the kids. No leashes!

I’ve excited about where I take the blog. What am I going to do next, what opportunities do I want to jump on? I want to do some sort of cookbook and I want to get into video.