I come from a food-loving, tight-knit family in New England. After college and a couple of years in the editorial department at a fashion magazine in New York City, I got a wild hair to experience the Pacific Northwest and arrived in the summer of 1989.

The back-to-nature lifestyle, the snowy peaks and small towns instantly enamored me. I moved into a beachfront cabin on an island in the Puget Sound while getting my graduate degree in education and cooking at The Willows Inn. I have now lived on this coast for a longer time than I spent in the east. The Northwest is where I married my husband Benjamin, a poet and writer, and we are raising our children, Molly and Cecelia.

Writing and researching seem to be in my nature as much as my cravings for local foods. I began freelance food writing when I attended Seattle Culinary Academy and later went on to work at the Herbfarm restaurant, a bastion of local and seasonal cooking. I received scholarships from the International Association of Culinary Professionals and Women Chefs & Restaurateurs for advanced study in France and New York.

When I moved inland to Oregon’s Wallowa Valley in 2001, I focused on writing and editing with a few restaurant stints tossed in for spice. My feature articles and recipes have appeared in Relish, Fine Cooking, Saveur, the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post as well as essays in Tin House and The Oxford Companion to American Food & Drink. I have received a James Beard Journalism Award nomination and Special Mention for both narrative and recipe writing from The American Institute of Wine & Food. I am a writer for Zester Daily and contribute to Culinate and The Oregonian as frequently as I can while working as a private chef and organizing my local chapter of Slow Food USA.

In 2012, my first book, Pure Beef, was published by Running Press. I share stories of food excursions, recipes and reflections on my blog Rural Eating.