Welcome to The Joyful Pantry! I wish I could offer you a muffin, a steaming mug of cocoa, and a comfy seat, but this is the best I can do for now:

At least you know where to find the recipe.

My name is Rosalie. I love to cook, but can’t resist tweaking, changing, and ultimately completely altering every recipe I try. As a result, I’ve built up an arsenal of tasty recipes that I want to share with you. Serving delicious and nourishing meals gives me a great deal of joy, and I hope you’ll find yourself smiling as you peruse my recipes and, more importantly, each time you take a bite.

Serving healthy foods, made from whole ingredients, is important to me, so almost all of the recipes featured here are nutritious and rely on basic, natural ingredients. See My Food Philosophy page for more specifics on why I use the ingredients I do. Almost all of my creations are also low in animal products, but can easily be made to simultaneously please both vegetarians and meat lovers. Check out  the Versatile Vegetarian page for more information on feeding mixed groups (or families) of diners.

Despite my love of cooking, my recipes are mostly quick and easy, due to necessity. I have an ever-patient and supportive husband and two children. Our oldest is a four-year-old firecracker who can’t pronounce “th” and has learned that saying “Mommy, you’re the best cooker in the world,” is likely to get her almost anything. (Although she is now opting for new tactics, as this compliment wears off. My favorite: “Hmmm…I am just really stinking about those cookies…”) Her sidekick is a sweet, blue-eyed drooler whose baby breath and toothless grins make me swoon. We live in a small town in the Pacific Northwest, not far from Portland. This green-soaked paradise has captured my heart—but if you remind me that I said this in January, when we’re all popping Vitamin D and sloshing through rain puddles, I’ll probably deny it and beg for a ticket to escape the rain’s relentless dripping. Despite the soggy winters, summers here are glorious, and the rain has its upsides. The Willamette Valley’s  fertile soil enables us to pretend we’re farmers, raising chickens, a prolific garden, and several varieties of fruits and berries on our little lot.

I love running a home (I’m a micro-manager, let’s face it), but I have a varied professional background as well. After graduating from Brigham Young University, I worked as a freelance journalist, covering healthcare and the environment for a wire service and writing feature stories for a few magazines. I also taught yoga and dance at a local studio. I have spent the last three years attending law school at night, with a focus on Environmental Law, and will graduate this spring (hurrah!).

In addition to recipes, you’ll find snapshots of all the other bits and pieces of life that float through my kitchen and pantry: thoughts on raising and feeding children, creating a harmonious home, and the latest food and health research. Please, pull up a chair and join in!

This photo was taken by my talented friend Jessica Baum. You can see more of her work at jessicabaum.com.