The Culinary Hill Cookbook

The Culinary Hill Cookbook celebrates the Midwestern recipes I grew up eating and the people who shared them with me. Inspired by more than a decade of recipe development on Culinary Hill, the book features over 100 dependable recipes, personal stories, practical cooking tutorials, and the techniques I rely on every day as a classically trained chef.

Whether you’re making a family favorite for the hundredth time or trying something new, my hope is that this cookbook gives you the confidence to cook, gather around the table, and create a few happy memories of your own.

A Preview of the Recipes

Breakfast: Quiche Muffins, Blueberry Scones, French Toast, Morning Glory Muffins

Soups: Taco Soup, Cincinnati Chili, Sausage and Bean Stew, Lasagna Soup, Clam Chowder

Sides: Vegetable Caserole, Scalloped Potatoes, Italian Chopped Salad, Seven-Layer Sald

Appetizers: Taco Dip, Veggie Pizza, Buffalo Chicken Dip, Cowboy Caviar, Grape Jelly Meatballs

Supper: Overnight Lasagna,Chicken Gyros, Turkey Meatballs, Stuffed Peppers

Sweets: Spice Cake, Peach Cobbler, Scotcheroos, Cowboy Cookies, Lemon Bundt Cake

What People Are Saying

“The photos are absolutely gorgeous! I love how simple the recipes look and the fact that there are “how to” sections sprinkled throughout with tips and tricks!”

– Natasha Tomich ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“This is more than just a recipe book; it is a kitchen staple that you will reach for time and time again. It perfectly balances modern tastes with traditional comfort. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to elevate their everyday cooking or build confidence in the kitchen.”

– Courtney Stearns ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“A great variety of recipes from roasts, sloppy joes, lasagna to different vegetable side dishes, appetizers, soups, dips, charcuterie boards, breakfasts and many more. The recipes are easy to follow and great for beginners or occasional cooks, they always tell how long they take and give detailed descriptions of the steps with measures and a QR-Code. Stunning photos, the memories gave it a personal note and I loved the tips and DIYs. I’m excited to try them!”

– Michaela Plieninger ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“This is honestly one of the best recipe books I’ve read in a long time. It really does cover all bases, from proper family meals and comfort food to breakfasts, salads, sweet treats and snack ideas. Everything looked genuinely achievable and delicious rather than overly complicated. I especially loved the DIY platter and board sections. The ideas for fruit, vegetables, cheeses, meats and snacks were brilliant and made me want to host people immediately! The book felt really practical while still being beautiful to look at. The recipes themselves looked fantastic too. The overnight lasagna and chicken parmesan both sounded amazing, and I loved all the step by step photos throughout the book. The Oreo cheesecake looked absolutely incredible and is definitely one I want to try! I was genuinely thrilled to get to read this and can already tell I’ll be using lots of these recipes at home. A really well thought out cookbook that feels warm, accessible and packed with ideas.”

– Kirsteen Austin ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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The Story Behind My Cookbook

Long before Culinary Hill was a website, it was a tiny spiral-bound cookbook I made in 2010.

I collected recipes from my family, my friends, and my own kitchen, printed one hundred copies at a local print shop, and gave them away to everyone who contributed. It looked a lot like a school or church fundraiser cookbook because… honestly, that’s exactly what inspired it.

I had no idea at the time that it would become the beginning of my career.

Over the years, Culinary Hill grew from that little cookbook into a full recipe website, culinary school, thousands of published recipes, and now… this new cookbook.

The Culinary Hill Cookbook is deeply personal to me. It’s a mix of old and new: family favorites from my childhood, recipes I’ve spent years perfecting, holiday traditions, comfort foods, practical dinners, and the kinds of recipes I truly make on repeat in my own kitchen.

More than anything, I wanted this book to feel useful. Warm. Reliable. Like cooking alongside a friend who genuinely wants you to succeed.

One of my favorite things about seeing these two books side by side is realizing that, even after all these years, the heart of Culinary Hill hasn’t really changed. It still begins with sharing recipes and creating memories around the table.

Why this Cookbook Means So Much to Me

One of the questions I’ve been asked most often is: why write a cookbook now? 

The answer is simple, but deeply personal to me: this cookbook is my legacy.

It’s a celebration of the food I grew up with in the Midwest, the recipes passed around by family and friends, the dishes shared at church potlucks and holiday tables, and the recipes I’ve spent years developing in my own kitchen for Culinary Hill.

As I worked on the book, I thought about my collection of recipe cards, handwritten by thoughtful friends and family with a great recipe to share. I wanted this cookbook to feel like an extension of that tradition: warm, useful, and approachable recipes we all love to cook and eat.

Some of the recipes in this book are directly inspired by my childhood. Others are modern recipes that my own family now makes on repeat. Together, they tell the story of where I came from and how I cook today.

Thank you for being part of this journey with me. I truly cannot wait to share this book with you.

Why this Cookbook is Different

As I worked on The Culinary Hill Cookbook, I kept wondering: what would actually make this book more useful in a real home kitchen?

I didn’t want to create a cookbook that simply listed recipe after recipe. I wanted it to feel practical, inspiring, and genuinely helpful for everyday cooks.

So throughout the book, I built in what I think of as “teaching moments.”

For example, instead of sharing several separate deli salad recipes, I created a DIY Deli spread with one master deli salad base and variations for tuna salad, chicken salad, egg salad, and more.

There’s also a DIY Pancakes section with a master pancake recipe plus mix-in ideas and flavor variations like pumpkin, banana, berries, and chocolate chips.

I included visual guides for things people often want help with but don’t always feel confident doing, like:

• roasting vegetables
• building charcuterie boards and platters
• making homemade chicken broth
• dry-brining, trussing, and carving a turkey

I also included holiday menus, entertaining ideas, and special “easy holiday treats” layouts because I wanted the book to reflect how people actually cook and gather in real life.

At the end of the day, my goal is simple: I want this cookbook to help people feel more comfortable, capable, and excited to cook.

Behind the Scenes of Making a Cookbook

One thing many people don’t realize is that I chose to self-publish this cookbook instead of going through a traditional publisher. That decision was incredibly important to me because it meant I could have complete creative control over every part of the book: the recipes, the photography, the design, the tutorials, the layouts, and the overall feel of the cookbook itself.

I didn’t want to create recipes that felt unfamiliar just for the sake of novelty. I wanted this book to contain the recipes people actually want to cook, eat, and share.

I worked with an amazing design house that helped bring the project to life and keep me on schedule (mostly 😄), but every recipe and every page was chosen very intentionally.

I included many recipes from the website because they’re the recipes I truly believe in. They’re the recipes my own family makes, the recipes readers return to over and over, and the recipes I most wanted to preserve in a physical cookbook.

Of course, I also worked closely with Gerry Speirs, who photographed the recipes and shot the cookbook cover and interior photos. Gerry has photographed Culinary Hill recipes since 2017, and his contribution to this project cannot be overstated. He somehow manages to make food look both beautiful and genuinely approachable, which is exactly what I wanted for this cookbook.

From the first planning conversations to the final files being sent to the printer, the entire process took well over a year. It was exciting, exhausting, creatively fulfilling, vulnerable, and honestly a little surreal at times.

But through all of it, I kept coming back to the same goal: I wanted to create the kind of cookbook I would genuinely want to cook from in my own kitchen.

The Culinary Hill Cookbook

What started as a tiny spiral-bound recipe collection years ago somehow grew into this beautiful, full-color cookbook filled with the recipes I love most: comforting dinners, holiday favorites, practical basics, nostalgic desserts, and the kinds of recipes meant to be shared around a table with people you love.

This cookbook represents years of recipe development, writing, testing, photographing, editing, and dreaming. It also represents the support of so many people along the way: my family, my team, my friends, and all of you who have cooked from Culinary Hill over the years.

One of the things I’m most proud of is that this cookbook genuinely feels like Culinary Hill in book form. It’s practical, approachable, comforting, a little nostalgic, and designed to actually be cooked from.

Thank you for supporting this project, cheering me on, ordering the book, sharing kind messages, and allowing me to do work that I genuinely love so much.