Hilarybee

We’ve always been fans of Hilarybee, but she caught our eye this week with her gorgeous, envy-worthy Secret Swap gifts to vvvanessa. Pepper jellies. Peach and amaretto jam. Crabapple and Damson plum conserve. Cinnamon applesauce. We swoon at the thought of these in our larder, and, so it seems, they are the labors of love; as she tells us on her FOOD52 profile page, Hilarybee spends her weekends on the back roads of Ohio, searching for the best ingredients her state has to offer. A “dedicated locavore,” she describes herself – and from one look at her generous holiday gifts, we’d have to agree.

As promised, Hilarybee’s recipes wholeheartedly embrace the products she labors to find – in fact, many of her recipes have just five ingredients or less. Take, for example, her Vanilla Bean Applesauce, her Blueberry Lassi, her Raspberry Lemon Balm Jam (and, of course, her Poor Man’s Kirsch). Simple yet creative, her recipes spark that “of course!” feeling within us: Of course we should lace our pizzelle with citrus (in her Meyer Lemon Pizzelle, pictured above)! Of course we should cook our quinoa with leftover spinach water! No matter what the season, no matter what the combination, Hilarybee’s recipes are celebrations of flavor, soaring odes to produce; she humbly bows down to her ingredients, and we, in turn, bow down to her. 

Read our profile Q&A with Hilarybee below, and check out her beautiful blog here.

• What's the strangest food you've ever eaten?
  Rattlesnake
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• What do you cook when home alone?
  Recently, scrambled eggs with salad or toast. Bread with a hunk of good cheese.
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• Your most treasured kitchen possession:
  Toss up between my vintange hand crank pasta machine and my Kitchen Aid mixer.
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• The ideal number of guests for a dinner party is:
  6