My name is Kate.

at the Brooklyn Kitchen, photo courtesy of Jo Ann SantangeloMaker Faire NYC 2010 photo courtesy of Jo Ann Santangelo

I’m a grant writer, half-assed domestic goddess, occasional nanny, after-hours poet, committed doodler, trash collector, big-time procrastinator, tea and toast and jam obsessed Austinite. I come from Swedish, German, Irish and British great grandparents. I collect old typewriters; some of them still work. I studied anthropology and sociology in the Sonoran Desert. I worked on an organic tomato farm once. I paper mached gigantic thumbs once, too.

I’m a flashy cook. I stick to things that are alarming (jam, bread, ice cream, muffins, marshmallows, etc.) as opposed to required. Thankfully J is around to ensure our daily demands for actual sustenance. We’re on a tight budget, so we make 98 percent of the things we eat, here at home. J does creative (and delicious) meal planning well, I do throw-it-in-the-pan-and-hope-for-the-best well. Our powers combined keep us fed and happy all year round.

We have two, high-yield shedding orange pets, a stack of old window panes I schlepped to Brooklyn and back, two houseplants on their last limbs, a larder stocked with homemade jam and a ton of dust bunnies under the bed. We are rearranging the norms, making urban living on a budget work for us and doing the things we love while we’re at it.

[Winter 2010 UPDATE: Since starting and finishing this book my houseplants are doing considerably better and I’m at least trying to keep the dust bunnies in check (no claims about success, though). We also moved back to Austin. Brooklyn’s charms were many, but the big, spring-fed pool in the middle of our city lured us home.]

Write to me at kate {at} teakate {dot} com if you’re feeling chatty.