I’m Whitney from the Alabama coast. Since I’ve been out of college, I have really grown to love cooking and trying different recipes. I definitely didn’t grow up liking cooking or appreciating real food. I used to be a super picky eater — pizza, chicken fingers, plain butter noodles, fudge rounds — I could have lived off of those back in the day. Once I got to college, I slowly started coming out of my food-shell. Thanks to friends (thanks Court), I ended up expanding my palate a little to include Mexican food, sushi (gasp!), and sandwiches (thanks to a Subway right by our place).
I graduated with a Finance degree from Auburn University in 2008, and with my Masters of Business Administration in 2010 (Auburn). Nearly a year before graduating with my Masters, my father passed away from cancer. After moving home from college in Dec 2010 and attending Auburn’s National Championship in Jan 2011, my mom, too, passed from cancer. I then became legal guardian to my (14-years younger) brother. What a huge, but amazing change in my life. He’s still now in high school, and is a great kid and amazes me every day!
I hardly cook the same recipe more than a handful of times. I subscribe to a few food magazines, bought a few cookbooks (thank you Amazon), and just love looking through them to find out what to make next. I used to just cook those “5-star” rated recipes online, but cookbooks are WAY better. You’re not depending on others to rate the flavor. A lot of the time the ratings help, and those recipes are delicious; but the cookbooks offer no “ratings” so I don’t prejudge and expect its going to be the best thing ever. I will sometimes modify what’s in the ingredients according to what I can get locally or what’s in the house.
Rocky and I, August 2015
That Square Plate started as an Instagram concept. I would cook, make it look pretty, often put it on a white Square Plate I got from Target, take a picture, and share it on Instagram (@thatsquareplate). I’ve always been obsessed with keeping up with what I cook — how good it is — do I want to make it again — etc., so naturally the next step is to create a little webpage for my recipe archive. So thatsquareplate.com was born (Oct. 27, 2014).
I’m always open to questions or comments, feel free to contact me!
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