Let’s nourish with ease together in your kitchen.
Spending over a decade cooking and baking in restaurants and bakeries around the world, I have arrived at learning that the art is neither the eating or cooking, but the offering and sharing of food. I have learned to build a pantry for a month of temporary residence to years of temporary residences and everything in between. I have curated a set of tools that I travel with to create endless possibilities of nourishment. There exists more ways, more opportunities to express ourselves if we get to know the tools we already have. I want to offer the experiences I have honed to help others find comfort in their kitchen.
As we go through life, we enter and exit many stages. Some transitions offer more contrast than others. Sometimes, these changes demand that our diet also adjust. It can be uncomfortable and unencouraging if we feel unequipped. Food can help us feel grounded, build our immune system, affect our emotions, transform us so we can better navigate both certainty and uncertainty, guide us into intuition, and provide ease to playfully explore again.
I desire to support those who want to cook more in their homes and with more fluidity. My goal is that with these offerings you can feel more comfortable in the spaces you’re cooking and sharing memories in. I cherish in the invitation of friends, in counting the days until the celebration, small or large, and in the craft of invitation to nourishment.
Below are 3 offerings I am excited to share, virtually or in-home collaborations. Current place of residence: Weaverville, NC. Happy to travel if necessary. If interested, please share with me how I can assist in this form.
Organize the pantry and use of techniques
FOR those who feel comfortable in the kitchen but feel overwhelmed by the multitude of barely used spices and gadgets.
GOALS
– Learn how to manage a cooking space.
– Build a streamlined, meaningful pantry that nourishes.
– Create less dishwashing with streamlined prep.
– Feel comfortable altering recipes when the pantry seems sparse.
– Establish core cooking techniques that create simple, tasty meals to share with self and others.
Together let’s create a sustainable rhythm of how you share nourishment.
This offering will be most beneficial with quarterly to semi-annual collaborations.
Cooking with a CSA, seasonally, or dietary shifts
FOR those who feel too one-directional in their cooking and want to adjust for dietary shifts or cook with seasonality or variety.
GOALS
– Transition to cooking with seasonal produce or with a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share.
– Adjust recipes that bring comfort to incorporate seasonal produce or dietary shifts, while using your pantry.
Together let’s rekindle the creativity nourishment incites.
This offering will be most beneficial with monthly to quarterly collaborations.
Sourdough Baking
FOR those who want to expand or begin their sourdough baking knowledge and skills.
GOALS
– Learn how to build and maintain a sourdough starter.
– Find a bread schedule that works with already set in place commitments.
– Identify some baking details or techniques that might be overlooked with inexperience.
– Discover creative ways to use spent sourdough starter.
Together let’s establish a few simple recipes to help you feel more comfortable baking sourdough breads in your own kitchen.
This offering will be most beneficial as needed and can be held individually or for a group.
Still undecided? Send me a message and let’s share a conversation together to discover comfort in cooking. It took me cooking sola for a year while living in Lima to find the internal light which pointed me to my grandmother and memories of her in the kitchen.
These books gave me much insight during transitions:
– Balance Your Hormones, Balance Your Life, by Claudia Welch
– Healing With Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition, by Pitchford, Paul
– Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon
– Staying Healthy with the Seasons, by Elson M. Haas
Let’s nourish together.
To learn more about this wonderful human you may desire to collaborate with, visit writings at karenman.substack.com or bread.blog. This is Karen, photos courtesy of Sarah.
Karen Man 