About Me

Kitty Warren, ca. 1950

I love this picture of my grandmother, Kitty Warren, probably taken in the early 50s. Note the perfectly done nails and the triple strand pearls. This was taken in her kitchen, where she wrote her stories for Women's Wear Daily, typing them out on her manual typewriter that she stored on a shelf in the pantry. I guarantee you she's wearing hose and heels and has a coordinating handbag in the chair by the door. I loved my grandmother because she was an original; hard-working and hilarious in a slightly ditzy Southern belle kind of way. She was a lady, when that word meant so much more than it does now. She's also the only writer in my family.

Lucy Mercer, 2010

And this is me, again with the pearls. I'm a writer, a mom, a wife, a daughter, a friend, in no particular order. Or maybe that is a particular order, because writing is always with me, a phrase or sentence or paragraph continually working itself out in my brain's endless stream of prose.

Some people start blogs because they want to be the next Pioneer Woman; some people have opinions they think the world needs to hear. Others have unstoppable and un-toppable recipe collections. Me, I just want to write and share my words with others. My tagline pretty much sums it up: I cook, I write, I carpool. That's my life.

That's my Happy Housewife bio. Now let's get down to brass tacks:

I am a freelance writer, editor and recipe developer. This blog showcases my work - in addition to the writing, I style and shoot all my photographs. I communicate with A Cook and Her Books' followers through Facebook and Twitter. Food is what I've always wanted to write about, but I will stay true to my newspaper background and tell you that I can write about anything for any reader.

If you want an idea of the stories that I really like, check these out:

Something from Nothing: Stuffed Pumpkin Blossoms

Chef Linton Hopkins Talks Shrimp and Grits

Kim Severson on "Spoon Fed"

Eat a Peach

Marcus Samuelsson's Lesson on Rum

I write stories for Examiner.com, too. My titles there are:

Atlanta Restaurant Examiner

Atlanta American Food Examiner

National Cookbook Examiner

Please contact me at acookandherbooks [at] gmail [dot] com.