The Nourished Shelfie
A Peek Into Rebecca Blackwell’s Kitchen + Reading Life
Get weekly holistic nutrition and preparedness insights to help you build a nourishing kitchen, resilient lifestyle habits, and lasting peace of mind—one thoughtful choice at a time.
Hi friend,
I’m Mira Dessy — a writer, crochet enthusiast, plant mom, and holistic nutrition educator who loves helping people feel truly nourished. If we were sitting together at my kitchen table, there would be green tea and a few simple snacks nearby while we talked about food, wellness, and how to make sense of it all. This space is my Substack kitchen table. I’m so glad you’re here.
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As many of you know I love food and I love books. I’m fortunate enough to have a lot of wonderful friends who have the same interests.
After participating in bookish things like Anna Wharton ’s Sunday Shelfie, I decided to start The Nourished Shelfie. This is where I get to ask food and nutrition folks about their books. It’s probably a dangerous idea; I imagine my TBR is about to grow exponentially. But I’m so curious I can’t help myself. First up is my friend Rebecca Blackwell, I’m excited for you to meet her:
Rebecca Blackwell is a writer, recipe developer, food photographer, with two recipe websites and her Substack newsletter, Let's Get Lost , that’s read across all 50 states and in 91 countries. In 2020, Rebecca and her husband sold their Colorado home, moved into a 5th wheel RV, and began traveling full-time across the U.S. In 2025, they added a sailboat to the mix, spending summers on the water. Her nomadic life shapes most of the recipes she creates and readers can be assured that if they work in her tiny kitchen, they’ll work in theirs! She’s been cooking and baking professionally for nearly 30 years and published over 1600 recipes. In addition to writing, Rebecca teaches weekly cooking classes on Substack and leads a monthly mastermind group for food writers.
How would you describe your collection of cookbooks and nutrition books?
My husband and I sold our home and moved into an RV 6 years ago so we could travel around the country. We had a typical suburban house and spent months getting rid of almost everything in it. It wasn’t hard for me to get rid of anything except my books, and especially my cookbooks. I brought as many with me as I thought I had room for - about 30. I have since found room for about 30 more, so we travel about the country now with my library of 60-ish cookbooks. I have also purchased some on kindle, though it’s not the same as holding a real book in my hands.
As a recipe developer, I have a handful of “reference” books that I’ll never give up because they contain foundational principles that are important to the work I do. But, I am a sucker for any cookbook that combines story and recipes. I purchase new ones every year. When my collection gets untenable, I start giving some away so I can make room for more.
My collection isn’t organized in any particular way. I have a shelf above our dining table that contains the ones I’m most likely to leaf through at any given moment. What’s on that shelf changes every time we move from one location to another. The rest are stacked in piles next to my side of the bed. When those piles start looking precarious, that’s when I pick through them to give some away.
In percentage terms, how many of your cookbooks do you actually cook from?
I rarely cook directly from the cookbooks I own. I use them more as reference and inspiration for recipes I’m creating. If I’m working on a Mediterranean inspired recipe that includes fish, for example, I’ll pluck a few different books from my shelf and flip through them for ideas and inspiration. I comb through recipes in search of unique flavor pairings, cooking methods, and other techniques that might elevate the recipe I’m working on. I take notes and then head into the kitchen to start experimenting.
I also often read cookbooks like novels. Because I create recipes for a living, I almost always open a note on my phone and jot down ideas as I read. It’s impossible to not be inspired by other people’s work!
What are the top three books (cookbooks or nutrition titles) currently on your “to explore” stack?
I keep a running wish list of books I want to purchase at some point in the future. The three most recent books that I added to that list are:
Lee Miller: A Life with Food, Friends & Recipes by Lee Miller
Baking and the Meaning of Life: How to Find Joy in 100 Recipes by Helen Goh
Turtle Island: Foods and Traditions of the Indigenous Peoples of North America by Sean Sherman
Which cookbook or food book is the most well-loved in your kitchen—the one you return to again and again—and why?
Baking with Julia. This was one of the first books I purchased in my very early 20s when I was learning how to bake. I read it cover to cover and then started baking my way through its pages. It was like attending pastry school! I methodically moved from recipe to recipe, learning new techniques, making mistakes, and trying again. I learned so much from that book and have it with me to this day!
Did you grow up in a family where cookbooks were used? And are there cookbooks you remember from your childhood that a parent or grandparent used?
I remember my mom having a small collection of cookbooks that still feel nostalgic to me. The Betty Crocker and Better Homes and Gardens cookbook covers will always bring back memories!
My grandma was a recipe collector and had a wonderful collection of hand-written recipe cards. One year for Christmas she gave all of her kids and grandkids a spiral bound book of her favorite recipes. The pages contain notes about each recipe, things like who she made it for and who loved it the most. It’s one of my most treasured possessions!
Is there a book that most influenced your philosophy around food, nutrition, or wellness? How did it shape your work?
This is a tough one. The books I’ve purchased, read, and cooked from over the years are very wide ranging. I always have a difficult time when people ask me questions like, “what kind of recipes do you create?”, because the food I cook is also very eclectic. I have a very generalized interest in food and recipes, which is one way of saying that I’m interested in all of it!
Every cuisine and philosophy is intriguing to me. But I think the books that I feel the most personally aligned with are ones that do not advocate for a strict diet or include a lot of “rules”. In fact, I like breaking rules when cooking more than I like following them. As far as I’m concerned, the only rules we should be following are the ones that work for us and align with our personal tastes and preferences, and what makes us feel good. I am fortunate to not have any food allergies or sensitivities, so nothing is truly off limits for me. But, I do try and pay attention to what I’m craving and how different foods make me feel. I also try to incorporate a lot of ideas for how people can take one of my recipes and adapt it to their own needs.
If you had to name three favorite cookbooks (or food books) that you return to often—classic or modern—what would they be and why?
I recently published a list of my top 10 favorite books and it was so hard to narrow them down to 10! Three is impossible! But here we go…
Baking with Julia, which I’ve already mentioned, has to be on the list. Also Bouchon by Thomas Keller.
and the Zuni Cafe Cookbook by Judy Rodgers.
I also want to mention a book called The Flavor Matrix by James Briscione which I rely on heavily during recipe development, especially at the idea stage. The book breaks down the flavor compounds of specific ingredients and groups them together in charts that lets you discover unexpected combinations.
Do you have a “guilty pleasure” food read?
Oooo… what a fun question! I love to read through books that are filled with very “chefy” complicated recipes that require tools I don’t own and techniques I’ll never actually try. It’s inspiring to see how creative chefs can be even though my actual interests lie in more practical cooking.
Which single cookbook or food book would you take with you if you had to cook in a very limited setting (your version of a “desert island kitchen”)? Why that one?
Another interesting question! This is so different from the books I consider inspirational. It would have to be something extremely practical and foundational. I think, for me, it would have to be Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat. The basic principles in that book could allow anyone to cook almost anything in nearly every situation, no matter how limited.
What book is currently on your wishlist—the one you’re excited to add to your collection next?
It’s no longer on my wishlist because I just ordered it, but I haven’t yet had the chance to dig in and I am very excited about spending some time in its pages: Will This Make You Happy by @tanyabushTanya Bush. It’s a story of how one woman baked her way out of a deep depression, one recipe at a time. The book is interesting because every chapter is a combination of illustrated memoir and photographed recipes. I think there is more creativity in cookbook writing these days and I love it!
Shelfie Post Notes
I’m so grateful to Rebecca for being my inaugural guest for The Nourished Shelfie. It was delightful to learn more about she cooks and bakes and who her inspirations are. I think it would be an incredible adventure to visit her in her RV and play with food in her kitchen.
As I suspected, I’ve now added some books to my TBR List — Lee Miller’s A Life With Food, Friends, & Recipes, because I know I’m going to love her just from that cover photo alone, and Will This Make You Happy by Tanya Bush. I read cookbooks, I love the stories and headnotes so I’m looking forward to this for inspiration and possibly a few recipes that will fit my gluten free lifestyle.
The best interviews always leave me inspired, and this one sent me away with new books to read, new ideas to ponder, and a renewed appreciation for the creativity that food can inspire.
If you’ve enjoyed this glimpse into someone’s shelf, there’s more to come. Each edition of The Nourished Shelfie brings a new perspective, new inspiration, and perhaps your next favorite cookbook or read.
Food News You Can Use
Food is never just food. Behind every restaurant menu, meal kit recipe, viral dish, or cookbook is an interesting intersection of creativity, business strategy, nutrition trends, and consumer psychology. These recent articles show us an interesting glimpse into how recipes are developed today, from corporate test kitchens and social media algorithms to restaurant chefs translating professional cooking into something usable for home cooks. Paying attention to how food is created and marketed can help you become a more thoughtful and informed consumer.
What Meal Kits Reveal About Modern Food Trends
A recent article from Bon Appétit explores how HelloFresh develops its menus using chefs, registered dietitians, consumer data, and trend forecasting. The company carefully crafts meals that balance convenience, flavor, nutrition messaging, and broad consumer appeal. For you as a consumer, this offers an interesting look at how modern food corporations shape eating habits. It also shows how “healthy” food is often designed as much around marketability and convenience as nutrition itself. While meal kits can be supportive for busy households, this also highlights the importance of maintaining your own understanding of ingredients and cooking skills.
Holistic Action Step: Use meal kits and convenience tools as support, not replacement. If you’re not used to cooking I encourage you to continue building confidence in your own kitchen by learning simple cooking methods and how to understand the ingredients you’re eating.
Why Recipes Are Designed to Go Viral
In a recent article from Eater featuring insights from writer Ruby Tandoh, she looks at how recipes are often developed for emotional impact, visual appeal, and social media engagement. In today’s digital world, food creators often think about not only how foods taste, but also how recipes will perform online and if they’ll encourage clicks, shares, and/or a strong emotional reaction. This reminds us that the food media can subtly shape cravings, expectations, or even eating habits. It can be helpful to stop and think about whether a recipe will genuinely nourish you or if it simply captures your attention.
Holistic Action Step: Before trying the latest viral recipe or food trend, check in with yourself. Ask if it aligns with how you want to feel physically and emotionally, and if it supports your broader relationship with food and nourishment.
Restaurant Cooking at Home
Chef Bill Peet was recently featured in the New York Post. The article highlighted his process of translating decades of restaurant cooking into a cookbook for home kitchens. One of the most interesting themes was how difficult it can be to adapt professional recipes into approachable, practical meals for everyday people. Restaurant cooking often uses specialized equipment, prep work, and staffing that home cooks simply do not have. Plus they’re cooking at a far different scale. For the home cook, this serves as an encouraging reminder that what you’re making does not need to look restaurant-perfect in order to be to be both nourishing and meaningful.
Holistic Action Step: Give yourself permission to simplify. Focus less on creating restaurant-quality meals and more on making food that is supportive, enjoyable, and sustainable for your everyday life.
Video: My Reading Habits
I love to read and thought this reading tag was fun. To be clear, I wasn’t tagged by anyone, I saw the idea on A Book Olive’s channel - The Reading Habits Tag and wanted to play along. Eleven questions, here are my answers.
⬇️This is the part of the newsletter where things get a little more personal
At the Kitchen Table (For Paid Subscribers)
If you’d like to go a little deeper this week, here’s what I’m sharing inside the membership:
Food News Extra - Rest Is Productive Too
Footnotes & Favorites - In this week’s paid newsletter I’m sharing a surprising lesson I learned from a Master Gardener class that completely changed how I think about watering a yard. Also why I encouraged someone to embrace frozen vegetables as a simple, nourishing kitchen strategy. And there’s also a little peek at the uplifting content I turn to when I need a reminder that goodness still exists in the world. If you enjoy thoughtful reflections on food, home, health, and everyday life, I’d love to have you join us as a paid subscriber.
Paid subscribers also receive full access to the Wellness Vault, including ebooks, handouts, mini classes, and more. This week’s focus is the Rainbow Challenge Chart.
If this space has been meaningful to you, I’d love for you
to join us at the Kitchen Table.
Paid Subscribers: continue reading here
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How positively delightful to be your first guest in this wonderful new series! Thank you so much for asking me! I am looking forward to reading all the future posts in this series, which promises to be deliciously dangerous to the size of my current collection! :-)
I loved reading about Rebecca’s cookbook collection. This is a great new series, Mira.