Hey there! I’m Mery 👋

Welcome to my little corner of the internet! I’m so glad you’re here.

How This All Started

Let me take you back to 2017. I was sitting in my tiny apartment kitchen in Portland, stirring a pot of my grandmother’s soup and feeling… stuck. I had a good job in corporate marketing, a nice paycheck, benefits—all the things you’re “supposed” to want. But something was missing.

The only time I felt truly alive was when I was cooking. Not just following recipes, but really creating—experimenting with flavors, tweaking my grandmother’s old recipes, inviting friends over to be my (very willing) taste testers. My husband Jake would come home to find the kitchen covered in flour, three different versions of the same dish cooling on the counter, and me furiously scribbling notes.

One night, after a particularly successful dinner party where everyone asked for recipes, Jake said, “You know, you should write these down somewhere. Like a blog or something.”

And honestly? I laughed. Me? A food blogger? But the idea wouldn’t leave me alone.

Two weeks later, MerysFlavor.com was born. I had no idea what I was doing. My first photos were terrible (we don’t talk about the potato salad incident of 2017). My recipe format was all over the place. But I loved every second of it.

The Journey from Then to Now

What started as a hobby—me sharing family recipes and kitchen experiments—somehow turned into this beautiful community of home cooks. Today, over 500,000 people visit this site every month, and honestly, that number still blows my mind.

In 2019, I took the leap and left my corporate job to do this full-time. Scariest decision of my life, hands down. But also the best one.

Since then, I’ve:

Published my first cookbook, “Flavor First: 100 Recipes for Busy Lives” (!!!!)
Been featured in Food Network Magazine (I may have cried)
Won “Best Food Blog” at the Bloggers Choice Awards
Developed recipes for brands I’ve admired for years
But most importantly: connected with thousands of home cooks who’ve become like family

What You’ll Find Here

Here’s the thing about my cooking philosophy: good food doesn’t have to be complicated. Some of my favorite meals are the simplest ones—the ones made on Tuesday nights when you’re tired but still want something delicious. The ones that bring people together around a table.

On MerysFlavor.com, you’ll find:

Weeknight-Friendly Recipes – Because most of us don’t have hours to spend in the kitchen on a Tuesday
Comfort Food with a Twist – Classic flavors you love, sometimes with a little creative spin
Budget-Conscious Cooking – Delicious food doesn’t have to break the bank
Honest Kitchen Talk – I’ll tell you when I’ve burned the garlic (more times than I can count) and when a recipe took me four tries to get right

I test every recipe at least 3-4 times before it goes on the site. I mess up, adjust, taste, and mess up again until it’s something I’m genuinely excited to share with you. If my name is on it, I want you to love it.

A Little More About Me

I live in Portland, Oregon with my husband Jake (software engineer by day, my most honest taste-tester and hand model by night) and our two rescue cats, Basil and Sage. Yes, they’re named after herbs. Yes, they photobomb my food photography regularly.

Jake and I renovated our kitchen in 2021 specifically for filming and recipe development, and it’s become my favorite room in the house. There’s always something simmering on the stove, music playing, and usually at least one kitchen experiment in progress.

When I’m not working on recipes, you can find me:

Wandering through farmers markets (research, obviously)
Hosting dinner parties for friends (more research)
Trying new restaurants around Portland for “inspiration”
Actually just eating, let’s be honest
Spending time outdoors hiking and exploring the Pacific Northwest
Reading cookbooks like they’re novels

What Makes MerysFlavor Different

I never wanted this to be just another food blog with pretty pictures and recipes you’ll never actually make. I wanted it to feel like cooking with a friend—someone who’s burned things, who understands that weeknights are chaotic, who knows that sometimes you need to substitute ingredients because that’s what’s in your pantry.

Every recipe here comes with:

Practical substitutions (don’t have buttermilk? I’ve got you)
Make-ahead tips (because who has time to cook everything from scratch every night?)
Honest difficulty levels (I’ll never call something “easy” if it took me three tries)
Encouragement (you can do this, I promise)

I believe cooking should feel empowering, not stressful. It should bring joy, not anxiety. And most importantly, it should bring people together.

My Approach to Food

I love using seasonal, fresh ingredients when possible, and I try to support local farmers and sustainable practices. But I also live in the real world where sometimes you need canned tomatoes and frozen vegetables, and that’s completely okay. Good food is good food, period.

I’m not here to judge your grocery choices or make you feel bad about using shortcuts. If jarred garlic gets dinner on the table when you’re exhausted, then jarred garlic is perfect. This is a judgment-free kitchen.

Let’s Connect!

The best part of this whole journey has been connecting with all of you. Seriously. When you leave comments telling me how a recipe turned out, when you tag me in photos of your creations, when you share your own tips and variations—that’s what makes this worth it.

You can find me:

Instagram: @merysflavor (behind-the-scenes stories, recipe reels, and probably too many cat photos)
Pinterest: MerysFlavor (your recipe saving headquarters)
Email Newsletter: Sign up for my “Sunday Supper” newsletter where I share new recipes, kitchen stories, and what’s currently on my dinner table

I read every comment and message—it might take me a bit to respond sometimes (one-woman operation over here!), but I promise I see them all and they make my day.

Thank You

Thank you for being here. Thank you for trusting me with your dinner plans, your special occasions, and your precious time in the kitchen. Whether you’ve been following along since 2017 or you just stumbled upon this site today, I’m so grateful you’re part of this community.

Now, let’s get cooking!

With love and a little extra garlic (always),

Mery 💚

P.S. – Have a recipe question? A suggestion for what you’d like to see next? Or just want to say hi? Drop me a line at [email protected]. I love hearing from you!

P.P.S. – If you’re looking for a specific type of recipe, use the search bar at the top of the page. And if you can’t find what you’re looking for, let me know—your request might become my next recipe project!