Welcome to The Crumby Kitchen!

ABOUT THE BLOG

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 The 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 it’s a special birthday cake recipe, where to find the best romantic dinner for two, or tips for road tripping without driving each other crazy, our goal is to inspire others to cook, eat, travel, love, and live in each day completely…no matter what mess the experience may leave behind to clean up later!

ABOUT US

I’m Erica, unforgiving foodie, nerd, and general goofball with incurable wanderlust. My husband, Abe, and I love to share our favorite recipes for two – everything from dinner to drinks to desserts. We’re also into potlucks (blame Fantasy Football,) so we’ve got great larger recipes for you to browse, too! 

My love for food, life, photography, and my family are what motivated me to start this blog in 2014, and those loves have only grown since. The Crumby Kitchen began as The Crumby Cupcake, but I felt like a re-brand was needed when people were shocked that I didn’t ship the sweets I shared on the blog. So, here we are.

In the kitchen, I am totally self-taught/Nana-taught. I have no formal culinary training, aside from the 17 years I spent working for a Southern supermarket chain bakery (a job I left in 2017 to pursue this food thang full time.) I am German and Polish, and Abe is 100% Dominican, and our different heritage and 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 30-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.

I am also a self-taught photographer and food stylist. Being an early adopter of Pinterest is actually what inspired me to pick up the DSLR Abe bought me and start my own blog. In case you’re wondering: 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.

When we’re not cooking and baking and doing blog things, we have a love-hate relationship with LA Fitness. We love to binge-watch ’90s sitcoms, play MMOs, start numerous DIY projects and then put them off, and find the best places to eat around town. We live on the east Central Florida coast, so we are, of course, Disney annual passholders, and we make sure those things pay for themselves. 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 Aussie, Vader. I feel as much love for him as my friends feel for their human kiddos.

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. And complaining about how hot Florida is. There is a 110% chance you’ll get a taste of our life outside of the kitchen on this blog as well, so hang on tight.

To quote Julia Child, People who love to eat are always the best people. 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.