Hi. I'm Jacqueline Piper and I write this website. I can usually be found in my kitchen testing something out or swaying in my hammock at my cabin. I'm lucky to have a wonderfully supportive husband, 3 amazing (grown) kids, and 2 perfect little grand-babies.
Welcome to Piper Cooks
I love to cook, travel, take photos, and watch hockey and football. Fresh ingredients, new ethnic grocery stores, and mom & pop restaurants make my heart go pitter-patter. We love supporting local restaurants and businesses in my hometown of Winnipeg (right in the middle of Canada) and I take pride in being a Winnipeg food blogger.
I dream up new recipes. I eat boujee avocado toast. I drink red wine and bourbon - neat. I enjoy the occasional cigar. If you ask my family, they'd say I have too many cookbooks. And Puppy never leaves my side.
I used to be terrible in the kitchen
Learning new things is my favorite. Give me a book, a video, or a website on something new and I'm here for it.
It's a good thing I love learning new things because about 7 years ago my doctor and I suspected I had Celiac Disease. In 2015 I finally saw a specialist and found out I didn't - for which I was so grateful.
But the whole process really opened my eyes to food and made me think about what I was eating - and how it was prepared. The days of browsing the frozen food aisles were gone once my doctor advised me to stay gluten-free until I could see a specialist.
It was confusing and weird. Mostly because I didn't know how to cook. At the time, we were a young family with three little kids and I mostly “cooked” out of cans and boxes.
I had to learn to cook
All of a sudden I had to learn about ingredients, shopping, baking, preparation, cooking, and nutrition. I couldn't eat what was on the shelves at the store. It was difficult to go out and eat in restaurants. Store-bought loaves of gluten-free bread were like bricks back then. I had to help myself.
I'm so glad I went through that though. I never thought I'd love cooking and baking and creating recipes, but I do! So much!
And if I can learn, you can too! We can do this. Trust me. And it doesn't have to be difficult or expensive. I try to use simple, fresh ingredients and make pretty much everything from scratch - but I've got lots of great hacks if to speed things up in the kitchen.
My favorite saying is “We can make it!”
About my recipes
I think food tastes so much better when it's homemade. And it's usually healthier too, which is important to me.
I share my recipes so that you too can make healthy homemade food for yourself, your family, and your friends. And I totally believe it's okay to have treats too.
My recipes:
- are mostly healthy and use ingredients you can find in your local grocery store. Sometimes we'll use an ingredient from a local ethnic store if we can find it, as in Pad Thai or Thai Curry Soup. Feel free to skip to the next recipe if you want to on those occasions. I love food from around the world.
- include one-pot dinners, Instant Pot dinners, delicious side dishes, and loaded salads. I specialize in making things from scratch so you'll find a wide variety of homemade Condiments, Sauces, and Dips, as well as a special section on Takeout at Home recipes.
- also include several recipes and step-by-step directions on how to make homemade bread and buns.
- start with breakfast. Try the most popular recipe on my website for Cinnamon Roll Homemade Oats. You'll also find my boujee Avocado Toast, another one of the most popular recipes here.
