About

What can you expect to find here at Brittany’s Pantry?

Reliable recipes that you will want to make again and again! Let me explain…

Over the years I found myself having to pare down recipes just to make them workable. I would eliminate unnecessary steps and replace hard to find ingredients with those that were more readily available but would result in the same flavors. And I could almost always make it a bit healthier. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. But the recipes that turned out were tweaked and adjusted over time and ended up in my regular menu rotation.

Eventually, my friends and family were asking for those same recipes that I had come to trust in. The food that I made over and over because the process was streamlined and, above all, tasted amazing. So…my love of reading, writing, and all things kitchen related meshed together into this website. It ultimately has enabled me to keep track of the recipes myself (because notebooks and post-its are maybe not the best system…) and to share them with anyone and everyone looking for dishes that have already been around the block a time or two. Food that you know will work the first time you make it. Food that you will eat if you find yourself sitting around my table.

As a result, the recipes here come from an eclectic mix of places and the stories of how they came to be make their way onto these pages.  I also love to create my own so many of the dishes posted are my originals. And if you live in the immediate vicinity or come to stay at my house, you may or may not be subject to repeated taste testing… No matter its origin, you can trust that I will never post anything that I haven’t already made several times. If you find it here, you know that is has already been and will be served again in my own home. Ultimately, my hope is that you find recipes here that you will enjoy making in your home as well.

While my family is of course my main audience when it comes to cooking and baking, I want to make food that we love, not just food that keeps us alive. I want to make food that anyone can enjoy and that has some variety to it; I am always trying new techniques and new ingredients to keep things interesting. Generally, I also try to cook food that is, for the most part, healthy. This is not always the case (see: Rum Raisin Rice Pudding) but is a way of life I believe in and try to stick to as much as possible.

And what about me?

I am a woman who loves to daydream about, prepare, and EAT (Oh baby, I love to eat) food. I worked in the food industry off and on from my mid-teens through my mid twenties which taught me a lot! I’ve bussed tables at chain eateries, worked in professional kitchens as a sous chef, catered, and helped put together meals for thousands if people at a time in commercial kitchens. But what all that has taught me, is that I love experimenting with recipes and writing my own, right here in my own kitchen. I have a college degree but for now, I stay home with my three wonderful kids: Evelyn(8), Eli(5), and Lane (2). I am married to a tall, dark, and handsome (*sigh* dreamy) ex-sailor who now works in nuclear power. The only thing I love more than my family and being in the kitchen is reading so literature may make a random appearance or two. We are in the middle of a move from Illinois to South Carolina and although my husband and I originally come from Minnesota and miss it immensely, we do enjoy not having to bundle our kids up against subzero temperatures and shovel our way out of several feet of snow 8 months out of the year! I swear I don’t have an accent but my friends from farther south disagree.

And the pictures?

First of all, I should start by saying I am such a novice! I was delighted to discover that when I started a blog about something I was passionate about, i.e. food, I found myself encouraged to continually explore a creative avenue I had always wanted to get into: photography. I am learning through experiments, reading, and some classes.

Most of the pictures before March 2011 were taken with a Canon Powershot SD450. It was a lovely point and shoot that was a tremendous upgrade from what we had before. We purchased it Christmas 2005 when we were expecting our first child and it has been a great little camera. But it became glaringly obvious that the limitations of a fully automatic camera were going to drive me nutsy! In the spring of 2011, my husband surprised me with an early birthday present! WA HOO! A Canon EOS 7D! I have a 50mm lens that I use most of the time, an 18-55mm that I use some of the time, and a 55-250 zoom lens and I rarely use for anything having to do with blogging, but is quite useful in a stadium or when trying to take pictures of the owl that hoots outside my bedroom window and keeps us awake at night.

I have a traditional tripod and a tabletop tripod that are very useful in low light. Beyond that, I am still learning. I may replace some of the truly horrid pictures I posted at the beginning when I had no idea what I was doing as some of them are really bad! In the mean time, I just keep practicing and having fun! Happy clicking!

Thanks again for stopping by!

Site Credits

This groovy website was designed and developed by Josh & Stephanie Lewis.

Legal Disclaimer 

This site and all of the contents including text and photos are the property of Brittany Arcand and under copy write. Occasionally, a post will contain affiliate links that may lead to monetary compensation for the owner. Any and all contents, opinions, and recipes, unless otherwise cited, are strictly that of the author.