Food has been in my bones for as long as I can remember.
I was the kid who would happily choose Julia Child, Pierre Franey and Yan Can Cook on PBS over Saturday-morning cartoons. The Smurfs did make the occasional appearance—but if somebody was chopping, sautéing or explaining why a dish worked, I was probably watching.
The first meal I remember cooking was scrambled eggs, and all these years later, eggs are still one of my very favorite foods. There is something about taking simple ingredients and turning them into something comforting and delicious that has always felt a little magical to me.
Outside the kitchen, I’m the mother of a teenager, I love to roller skate, and I still get genuinely excited talking about food, people and the ways the two bring us together.
And somewhere along the way, the kid who chose PBS cooking shows over cartoons ended up hosting one. I was a host of The Endless Feast, a two-season PBS series celebrating local and sustainable agriculture and cuisine across North America—and the sole host in its second season. It was every bit as fun as it sounds. Google it. You may still find me out there eating my way across the continent.
I started by teaching.
For years, I taught people how to shop for and cook meals to nourish themselves and the life they were building and living. I wanted them to know that food can be every bit as delicious as it is nutritious—that eating well does not require sacrificing flavor, pleasure or fun.
More than that, I wanted people to connect what they ate with the life they were creating. Food is fuel for your mind, body and spirit—and for the dreams, gifts and goals you are here to bring to life. I wanted people to choose nourishment not because they had to, but because they understood they were worth nourishing—deliciously.
Life showed me what nourishment can mean.
While raising my young child, I was also caring for loved ones who were dying from cancer. It was a season filled with difficult conversations, challenging decisions, long nights, busy days, doctors and diagnoses. I knew how much I needed nourishing food to keep going—and still, there were days when feeding myself well felt nearly impossible.
When friends and family showed up with meals, their care gave me more than nourishment. It gave me time, mental space, energy and one less decision to make. It took a weight off my shoulders and filled my belly so I could keep on keeping on.
I learned there is more than one way to serve.
For years, I resisted requests to cook for people. “I teach you to fish. I don’t bring you the fish,” I would say. Teaching people to nourish themselves felt like the highest form of service.
My own experience changed that. It taught me that sometimes the most helpful thing is not another lesson on how to fish. Sometimes you need someone to bring you the fish. Cooking for someone is not “just” making meals—it can give them nourishment, time, breathing room and capacity for whatever life is asking of them.
Now I see both as service. There are seasons for learning and seasons for being supported. Whether life is joyful, challenging or expansive, I can step into your kitchen and make sure good food is one thing you do not have to worry about.
That’s Ebeth’s Delish Life.
Mix And Match Meal Prep brings those lessons together: my love of real food, my belief that nourishment should be delicious, and my understanding that caring for yourself means not always doing everything yourself.
Let me take meals off of your plate.