Hey there! Welcome to The Crumby Kitchen!
The Crumby Kitchen is the place to be for the Millennial couple.
Ones that grew up on homemade meals eaten around the table who now know how to cook and enjoy a gourmet meal as easily as they can devour a frozen pizza.
On the flip side, there’s also room in our kitchen for the Empty Nesters – the “cool parents” who keep up with current trends in order to stay connected to their grown up children.
We’re here to help these folks embrace their “do what you love” worldview – and to help everyone else understand and embrace it. Whether you’re hunting for a dazzling cocktail, a new Instant Pot dinner, or a special birthday cake recipe, our goal is to inspire you to cook, eat, travel, love, and live in each day completely…no matter what mess the experience may leave behind to clean up later!
A little background about us…
I’m Erica, an unforgiving foodie, self-proclaimed nerd, and sarcastic goofball with incurable wanderlust. Florida-born and raised!
First things first: I am not in any way a professional chef. In fact, before starting this blog, my cooking skills were very much college student-caliber. I could bake my way around anyone, but I could not for the life of me learn to use salt in dinner recipes adequately.
My cooking skills are based in what my beloved great-grandmother (Nana) taught me, and have developed as I’ve created, recreated, and tested thousands of recipes on my blogging journey. I got my first job at 16, working as a clerk in the Publix Supermarket bakery. I spent 20 years working for the same company, learning how to decorate cakes and desserts and bake, taking on management positions in the last 6 years of my career. In 2020, I took the big leap and left Publix to pursue this food thing full time.
I met my husband, Abe, while working for Publix way back in 2006. He was a humble wrapper in the meat department at the time, and worked his way up to his current meat manager position. The man knows his way around a side of beef, and smokes the most delicious ribs and brisket I’ve ever eaten!
We were married in 2012, and our family of two is a blend of very different heritage. I am of German, Polish, and Czech descent, and Abe is very, very Dominican, so our palettes have led us on very interesting food adventures.
We enjoy international fusion (ramen en Espanol, anyone?), using lots of butter, and cooking with any kind of alcohol we can get our hands on. We’re just a couple of nearly 40-something Millennials with no children, and have no plans for that to change in the near future, so we have the luxury of cooking up whatever strikes our fancy. Sometimes, we get on a healthy kick, but usually, you’ll see a good mix of the real stuff we’re currently eating.
Luckily, we have a lot of hungry friends who are always willing to take the extras off our hands during recipe development.
In 2021, we moved from the east coast of Central Florida to West Georgia, and the change from being Disney passholders to state park ones has been…an adjustment. We love visiting local cities and towns, but I am a true wanderluster at heart – we travel as often as possible, and make a point to eat as much food as possible during all of our trips.
No matter where we go, it always feels so good to come home to our Mini Aussies, Vader and Drogo. I feel as much love for them as my friends feel for their human kiddos.
When we’re not cooking and baking and doing blog things, we have a love-hate relationship with the gym and trying to stay healthy. We love to binge-watch ’90s sitcoms and Korean dramas, play MMOs, start numerous DIY projects and then put them off, and find the best places to eat around town.
Of course, Abe and I enjoy things apart as well. He mostly sticks to video games and the random woodworking project. I like to spend my free time reading, drinking copious amounts of coffee, watching horror movies, practicing yoga, and discovering new craft beers and wines to love. Almost all of it to the tune of BTS, my very favorite group of all time.
About the blog…
My love of food, a rampant obsession with a new thing called Pinterest, and a desire to try a new hobby were what motivated me to start this blog back in 2014, and those loves have only grown since.
In addition to being a mostly self-taught cook, I am also a self-taught photographer and food stylist. Being an early adopter of Pinterest is actually what inspired me to finally pick up the entry-level DSLR camera that Abe bought me back in 2012 as a Christmas present, and inevitably start my own blog.
The Crumby Kitchen began as The Crumby Cupcake, but a rebrand was needed by 2017, when people were shocked that I was not solely a baking blog, nor did I sell and ship the sweets I shared.
So, here we are.
What you’ll find on The Crumby Kitchen…
- Reliable Recipes – we share all sorts of recipes on the blog – everything from cocktails to desserts to main dishes. All of our recipes are developed and tested in our home kitchen, often multiple times, to ensure a 0% failure rate for you!
- Approachable Recipes – as much as I love a complicated recipe (and we have a handful on the blog from the old days), we try to keep things simpler nowadays. We are constantly in the process of updating older recipes to meet the standards of our newer ones – including step-by-step photos, detailed instructions, hot tips, and even videos in some cases.
- Something for everyone – whether you’re looking for quick meals, recipes that require a bit of patience (like smoked foods), or new things to try out in your small appliances, we’ve got a little bit of everything.
- An email newsletter – like exclusive recipes and other fun things lighting up your email every Sunday morning? Sign up and join thousands of other like-minded foodies!
The cookbook!
In 2018, an exciting opportunity came along and I jumped in head-first – I wrote a cookbook!
I was already head-over-heels in love with the Instant Pot, so the electric pressure cooker theme was a great fit. Naturally, adapting some of my favorite recipes down for two people also made sense, since Abe and I are the only ones we were feeding.
The whole process was a whirlwind, and everything else in life was put on hold so I could meet my very tight 45-day deadline.
I know. 125 recipes in 45 days? Tell me how crazy I was.
But, I did it, and I got to work with one of my very favorite food photographers and humans, Hélène Dujardin.
I’m actually looking forward to doing another one someday soon – but on my terms, this time.
More about Erica & the blog…
Very aware! It’s a food pun! Since my cooking used to be crummy, and it often leaves behind crumbs.
This is the camera that I use, with these lenses. Sometimes, I use my phone, but usually only for travel. I shoot in natural light, but I have this softbox set for video shoots. I like to paint my own backgrounds, but sometimes I get lazy and order from Erickson Woodworks instead.
Personally, any type of baked good is my favorite! Abe is a master of the grill, and also all of the beef recipes on the site. And my indulgent passion has to be cocktails – they’re just so much fun to play with!
People who love to eat are always the best people.
-Julia Child
I have found that to be 100% true, which is why I’m here: to connect with all of the best people, and inspire you to do the same. I hope you stumble on 1, 2 or 20 recipes on this blog that you fall in love with as much as I have.
