About Framed Cooks

Hi there! I’m Kate, the cook, photographer and enthusiastic dish-washer-avoider behind Framed Cooks. Welcome to my kitchen!

Framed Cooks is all about easy, reliable recipes that make everyday cooking feel a little more delicious and a lot more fun. You’ll find quick dinner recipes, cozy comfort food, fresh salads, simple desserts and plenty of creative ways to turn familiar ingredients into something special.

Most of my weekday recipes are designed to get you from “What on earth am I making for dinner?” to happily sitting at the table in about 30 minutes. On the weekends, I’m perfectly content to linger in the kitchen a little longer—especially if cake is involved.

How Framed Cooks began

Framed Cooks started as a photography project. I challenged myself to photograph a different still life every day for two weeks, which was a slight problem because I preferred photographing dogs, babies, teenagers and other subjects that refused to sit still.

Then it dawned on me: dinner!

I was already writing recipes and cooking every day, so I began photographing the meals coming out of my kitchen. Before long, that little photography exercise turned into Framed Cooks—a collection of easy recipes, family favorites and stories from around our table.

What you’ll find here

I’m a self-taught cook and photographer, and I create, cook and photograph the recipes you see on Framed Cooks. Most are my own creations, while others are my adaptations of recipes I’ve loved over the years—from vintage family recipes to treasures discovered on the backs of boxes. Whenever a recipe is inspired by another source, I give it the credit it deserves.

Around here, you’ll find:

Quick and easy dinner recipes for busy days
Cozy pasta, chicken and comfort-food favorites
Fresh salads, vegetable recipes and simple side dishes
Easy desserts, cookies and cakes
Helpful ingredient notes, substitutions and recipe variations
Step-by-step tips to help every recipe turn out beautifully

My goal is to give you approachable recipes made with familiar ingredients—along with enough helpful information that you can cook them confidently and make them your own.

Meet the Framed Cooks family

My supporting cast includes my romantic and very funny Southern husband, who also cleans up the kitchen and is therefore clearly a keeper. Our daughter, son-in-law and rescue dog Winnie are part of the story too.

We live together in a multigenerational home in North Carolina, where there is always something cooking, someone laughing and a dog hoping that whatever I’m photographing will eventually fall on the floor.