It’s always been this way. I grew up watching The Frugal Gourmet and Julia Child on PBS, and eventually Rachel Ray and Ina Garten, too. I pored over gorgeous cookbooks from the library, as well as my mom’s collection of church and community cookbooks. I began making dinner for my family when I was in elementary school, not out of necessity, but out of passion.

When I was a teenager, my grandmother gave me a subscription to Martha Stewart Living and took me to Italy as a high school graduation gift. Of course, I picked Italy. Because: food.

Eventually, I fell in love with Anthony Bourdain and began to understand more fully what it means to be human while interacting with food and the people you share it with.

The physical act of making food has always been the thing that touches my soul—the way food can conjure up a memory or create a new one; the way it can connect you to your roots; the way it can teach you about a culture, a time, or a place; and the way a nourishing meal can help mend something that’s a little broken in you, or simply ground you.

I am always the first one aboard the meal train when someone I know is in need, because my greatest joy is loving on people through food.

Like most folks, life has knocked me down at times. One thing that has always kept my household feeling normal and functional was dinner on the table. No matter what was going on, I always managed to make a meal and sit down to eat it with my kids. This is how we all understood that everything was going to be okay, and that life would go on.

And that brings us to Phoenix Rising.

Phoenix Rising is my absolute dream come true, the culmination of a lifelong passion for food and for caring for people through it. I am absolutely thrilled for the opportunity to send a little love your way and to your family through food.