1. What made you start 'The Dinner Files' blog? What made you focus on dinners?

I started 'The Dinner Files' when I left the staff of Sunset magazine two years ago. People had such crazy ideas about what a professional food writer might eat everyday that I thought a blog that showed what I ate every night for dinner would be fairly entertaining.

2. How passionate are you about cooking and food?

I've loved cooking since I first made a Betty Crocker Snack Cake mix when I was eight. I like to think my taste and skills have improved since then, but I definitely feel the same sense of accomplishment when something I cook turns out and the same joy when people taste my food and smile.

3. Are the recipes which you feature on your blog your own? Do you personally compile them?

I develop, test, cook, photograph, and serve all the recipes on my blog.

4. Do you have a set framework which you follow when you come up with your own recipes? Or do you try to be creative to come with something unique?

As a food writer, coming up with recipe ideas is second nature for me. My recipes grow out of my cooking style, which is fresh, simple, unpretentious, and (most importantly!) delicious.

5. Along the years, you have featured a plethora of unique dinner recipes. Out of them, which captured your attention the most?

My favorite recipe? I could never choose! It depends on my mood. Lately, I've been a bit obsessed with both ultra-crunchy salads of radicchio and/or endive (like the radicchio salad with green olive dressing or the kumquat and endive salad that I posted recently) and puddings (oeufs a la neige and chocolate pudding are recent posts and I'm working on the best tapioca pudding recipes ever this week). Those obsessions will pass and morph - that's what I love about cooking and recipe development, the endless possibilities!

6. What is your family's response to your unique dinners?

My family eats well. Since they usually get delicious meals they are very good sports when things don't go as well. They are also wonderfully honest. They know what my best work tastes like and let me know - kindly and with love - when dishes don't quite measure up. We always have a good laugh when disaster strikes (my first attempt at green garlic gnocchi simply fell apart in the pot - I called them in to see dinner disintegrate before our eyes!).

7. How important do you think cooking is compared to eating out or ordering in ?

Cooking for me means home. It means someone cared enough to put a meal together, to gather everyone in the house around a table, to feed and care for everyone. Food you cook yourself is almost always healthier than restaurant or take-out food. I also believe you can taste the difference when food is made with love. Plus, cooking makes the house smell great!