The Plated Page started percolating in my brain when my kids were babies, but I just never had the time to get to it until now. I’m a librarian, (Go Rutgers!) amateur historian, mom of three, wife, avid reader and avid cook. The point of this is to make things as easy as I can for you, without too many rules on how to do things, so adapt these recipes as much as you want and make them your own.

I’m mostly an intuitive cook (except for baking) so I apologize if to some, it seems like there are not enough directions. I grew up with the “how much? about this much!” style of cooking. Some of you are I’m sure familiar with this if you learned by watching your moms, grandmas and aunties cooking at the stove. I’m doing my best but like everything else in life, it’s a work in progress.

-Michelle Anastasia

Some of my all time favorite books, not necessarily food-centric, or in any particular order:

*The House of Mirth * A World Made by Hand * Nana * This Old Century * *Assassin’s Apprentice * The Name of the Wind * The Belly of Paris * The Masterpiece * Sense and Sensibility * The Ninth House * Hudson River Bracketed * Madame Bovary * War and Peace* (this is not a cliche! Try it, it’s not as intimidating as people say) * Middlesex * The Custom of the Country * The Leopard * Therese Raquin * The Age of Innocence* The Jungle Book * Peter Pan * Watership Down * The Last Kingdom Series* *The Warlord Chronicles *…..