Alex grace
but basil & birch isn't just about food
I've always believed that some of the best parts of life are the ones we create ourselves--a really good meal on an ordinary Tuesday, flowers growing in the kitchen window, a trip somewhere you've never been, or a home that feels especially cozy when the seasons begin to change.
That's really where Basil & Birch began.
Before this little corner of the internet existed, I spent years of cooking professionally and building a catering business. Food has been part of my life for a long time, but I've never been particularly interested in making it complicated just for the sake of making it impressive.
I like beautiful food that people actually want to eat.
The kind of dinner you make again and again because your family loved it. The dessert that looks gorgeous sitting on the table but doesn't require a culinary degree. The recipe you find in October and suddenly associate with fall for the next ten years.
And I firmly believe there should usually be enough sauce.
That's really where Basil & Birch began.
Before this little corner of the internet existed, I spent years of cooking professionally and building a catering business. Food has been part of my life for a long time, but I've never been particularly interested in making it complicated just for the sake of making it impressive.
I like beautiful food that people actually want to eat.
The kind of dinner you make again and again because your family loved it. The dessert that looks gorgeous sitting on the table but doesn't require a culinary degree. The recipe you find in October and suddenly associate with fall for the next ten years.
And I firmly believe there should usually be enough sauce.
I love to travel!
wandering the earth
I love to travel—especially the kind of travel that lets you really experience a place.
I want to wander through neighborhoods, find the restaurant someone almost forgot to tell me about, learn the history, take the scenic route, stand somewhere I’ve read about for years, and occasionally build an entire itinerary around one place I absolutely refuse to miss.
I’m equally happy planning a beautiful dinner and figuring out how to get myself halfway across another country to see something extraordinary.
Here you’ll find travel guides based on the places I’ve explored, the things I’d actually recommend, where I’d eat again, what I’d skip, and all the practical details I wish someone had handed me before I went.
i'm also a homebody who loves leaving home
Which makes perfect sense to me.
I love traveling, but I also genuinely love home.
I’m a mom of three, a gardener, a baker, an enthusiastic Christmas person, a lover of flowers and books, and someone who gets ridiculously excited when the first hint of fall finally shows up.
I love changing the house with the seasons. I love growing things. I love a beautifully set table even when nobody particularly important is coming over.
And yes, I will absolutely make something from scratch when buying it would have been significantly easier.
Sometimes the process is the point.
why basil & birch
I wanted this site to feel like all of those things in one place.
Basil for the kitchen—the recipes, ingredients, meals, and years I’ve spent cooking.
Birch for everything beyond it—the outdoors, changing seasons, travel, home, and my constant desire to go see what’s around the next corner.
This isn’t a site about creating a perfect life.
It’s about paying attention to the good parts of the one you’re already living—and creating a few more of them when you can.
So stay awhile.
Make something delicious. Plan a trip. Plant something. Find a new restaurant. Bake the cake even if there isn’t an occasion.
"Life gives us enough ordinary days. We might as well make them beautiful." - Alex