Hi, I'm Kate.

I grew up in Connecticut, one of six kids in a big, loud family — the kind where dinner was a contact sport and there was always one more chair squeezed around the table. My mom cooked and baked for all of us, everything from scratch. The kitchen was the center of the house, and that's where I lived: standing on a chair next to her, covered in flour, learning that food is how you take care of people.

I went to culinary school because I couldn't imagine doing anything else. For years I baked the classics — the butter, the sugar, all of it. I loved it. Everybody loved it.

Then the people I loved most couldn't eat that way anymore — and I wasn't willing to let dessert disappear from our table.

So I started over. I took my mom's recipes, the ones I'd known since I was tall enough to reach the counter, and I rebuilt them: familiar treats made from whole, honest ingredients. No refined sugar. Nothing weird. Nothing missing.

The first time my family couldn't tell the difference, I knew I was onto something. That's what this kitchen is — every recipe a little magic trick. Brownies from black beans. Cheesecake from cottage cheese. Candy bars from dates.

If a recipe says brownies, they taste like brownies. The secret is just what's inside.

Welcome to my kitchen. Pull up a chair — there's always room for one more.