About Me
Why would a doctor start a food blog?
Hi, I’m Joanne. I’m an infectious disease doctor with a lifelong love of food. I’ve been cooking and baking for over 40 years, but it wasn’t until the pandemic, when I was stuck at home with my elementary school kiddo, that I began baking and cooking to distract us. Encouraged by friends, I started the Ugly Duckling Bakery blog in 2021 to share recipes I make for my family, from 30 minute weeknight dinners to more complicated weekend baking projects, and classic cocktails with a twist.
What the Ugly Duckling Bakery blog is about
You’ve probably landed here because Google served up one of my recipes or you found me procrastinating on social media. You’re wondering who the heck I am.
Here on the Ugly Duckling Bakery blog, I share:
- Smart, from-scratch recipes that are reliably delicious.
- Twists on familiar classics and an open invitation for you to adapt them to your own tastes and preferences.
- Teaching moments. My kid complains that I treat everything as a teachable moment. Here it’s in cooking and baking ratios, cultural histories of food, vegetable phylogenetics, or Hebrew pronunciation.
You can just follow my recipes and make delicious food your family will love. Or you can learn with me along my journey from recipe follower to recipe creator.
I’m gathering a community table of thoughtful home cooks. A place where you can learn and grow.
If that feels right for you? Welcome home. Dinner’s at 630.
A little bit about me
I’m a GenX and no-nonsense, older mom. I like 80’s music, word games and etymology, and Venn diagrams. No, I love Venn diagrams.
I try keep incredibly active despite my age and aging knees. I’ve done an Ironman triathlon, a few 50 kilometer trail races (including one at Burning Man), cross country ski all winter, and swim in the fast lane.
I’m not afraid to stand up for the things I believe in:
- Love is love. You’ll see all sorts of rainbow foods every Pride including my rainbow salad, rainbow veggie tray, rainbow sugar cookies, rainbow sprinkles, rainbow bread, or a looks fancier than it is rainbow fruit tart.
- Harm reduction is better than pushing abstinence. This is true of everything from sex education to substance use to making cauliflower mac and cheese. I have spent the last 15 years trying to expand access to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to populations who have been disproportionately impacted by HIV infection. You can see me talk about my work as a doctor if you like.
- Climate change is real, deforestation is a problem, and sometimes you should put other nuts in your pesto recipe instead of pine nuts.
- Cultural appropriation in food blogging is a problem on the continuum that includes cultural appreciation. If I make something like ube crinkle cookies, I’ll link to other creators with the lived experience I don’t share.
- I am not always, no never, perfect, and I am always learning and trying to be better and lift up others who don’t share my privilege.
If these things bother you, please unfollow me now.
About the Ugly Duckling Bakery blog
Early on, I listened to a podcast about the loss of biodiversity in the foods we eat, and I realized that I identify with heirloom tomatoes. My goal isn’t to write recipes that are the equivalent of artificially ripened but tasteless tomatoes we get year-round. We’ll get along if you’d rather eat a tomato bursting with summertime flavor that’s misshapen and imperfect. This tiramisu cake doesn’t look like it came from a commercial bakery, but you won’t complain about how it tastes.
I don’t use mixes or other things easily made from scratch, but I also recognize that not everyone wants to make homemade puff pastry. Some times call for convenience, like a can of beans in a weeknight garbanzo bean soup or pizza beans. When you have more time, I’ll still encourage you to make those beans, hummus, or peach barbecue sauce from scratch.
I’m not trying to get rich or famous – the ads on my site are there so I cover expenses. I just really love food. I love thinking about food. I love eating and sharing things I make. And some day I want to write a cookbook.
One of the things about my day job as a public health-focused physician is that I get to teach and mentor future doctors and public health nerds. And that’s one thing I’m loving about being a doctor food blogger.
My hope is to bring you some of the science and history, tips and tricks to understand how and why recipes work, and enough foundation so that you can start to create your own recipes. You can see an example in these posts about baking ratios and classic cocktail recipes. If you love cocktails, please join the 52 weeks of cocktails challenge!
My hope is to bring you some of the science and history, tips and tricks to understand how and why recipes work, and enough foundation so that you can start to create your own recipes.
This blog and my story have been featured on podcasts like the Doc Working podcast, Eat Blog Talk, and Fit and Fabulous at Forty. I’ve appeared in the University of Washington Medicine Faculty spotlight and the SoMeDocs online magazine. And my recipes have been showcased on Foodgawker, Trivet recipes, msn.com, Kansas Living Magazine, and many others.
I try to post new recipes about once a week. I’m usually baking some sort of cookies, brownies, or bars every Thursday for my weekly staff meeting. And lots of things on the site are a work in progress, especially my food photography, so I’m always updating.
You can sign up for my newsletter using the form below. You’ll get a short digest once or twice weekly that’ll include some meal planning, ways to use seasonal produce, and other tips and tricks in the kitchen.
I have a love-hate relationship with social media. You can follow me on Facebook. I have an Instagram page that I mostly use to document for myself the improvement in my food photography. But on Threads I’m a total person – I love Threads – so please interact with me there!
Ugly Duckling Bakery FAQs
I’m an infectious disease physician who specializes in HIV testing and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). I have been cooking and baking all of my life, and I’ve always dreamed about culinary training. Over my 50 plus years, I’ve taken lots of cooking classes in Seattle, where I’ve lived since 1997. And I love to do vacation cooking classes.
The photo above was taken during the Pie and Pastry Bootcamp at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park. I’ve also done a week of Northern Thai cooking in Chiang Mai during a year of around-the-world travel, a week with Estela at the Mexican Home Cooking school in Tlaxcala, a few days of one on one lessons with Diane Seed in Rome, and focaccia in Treviso that was the inspiration for my black pepper focaccia recipe.
I love wine tasting and cocktails and am always learning. We recently did a Prosecco wine tour in Northeast Italy, and I have a Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) Level 1 Certification in Spirits.
That’s a big no. This blog is for entertainment purposes only. Calories and other nutritional information are provided as estimates only and cannot be guaranteed 100% accurate. Please consult your health team for personal medical and nutritional advice.
Whenever I was frustrated with work or worried about grant funding for my research, I always said I’d open a bakery. One day I was driving in the car with Mr. Ugly Duckling Bakery, and we were brainstorming names for this theoretical bakery. We decided on the Ugly Duckling because things I make taste delicious but definitely look homemade.
I started off sprinkling cooking tips throughout the blog and felt strange about calling them “pro tips” since I’m a doctor, not a culinary professional. So, as a lover of puns, I renamed them “Tips from the wise quacker.”
It’s a Brit “Brick” Mendel design. You can reach them here on Instagram.
You can’t go wrong with any of the recipes on My Favorites page. I’m especially proud of these BBQ chicken meatballs. Check out my recipe index, or click here to see a random recipe from the archives.
There’s inspiration everywhere, from my favorite flavor combinations (hello, chocolate and peanut butter fudge), cookbooks, restaurant meals I’ve wanted to re-create, deconstructing complicated recipes, and of course the mighty Google.
Some of my favorites
Check out some of my Most Popular Recipes or start here:
So, my dear reader, I hope you find something at the virtual Ugly Duckling Bakery that makes your own life a little more delicious.
Bored with the recipes you’ve been cooking and baking lately? Join the thousands of others who get inspiration here: