At Homemade Food Junkie, our recipes come from real home kitchens. Since 2014, we’ve shared the food we cook for our families along with the techniques and kitchen knowledge that help home cooks succeed. This page explains our recipe testing process and how we develop, test, and maintain the recipes published on our site so readers can cook with confidence.
Our Recipe Testing & Editorial Process
Homemade Food Junkie was founded in 2014 by Diane Williams and her daughter Kayti Lavergne.
Both Diane and Kayti develop recipes and contribute ideas for the blog. Diane manages most of the writing, tutorials, photography, and publishing work that keeps the site organized and growing.
Kayti leads the social media side of the brand and collaborates on recipe ideas and creative direction.
She and her husband Brian also produces the video content used across Homemade Food Junkie’s social channels and YouTube platform.
Together we continue to build Homemade Food Junkie as a resource for practical homemade food.
How Our Recipes Are Developed
Our recipes begin in our own kitchens. Inspiration often comes from family meals, seasonal ingredients, garden harvests, and traditional cooking methods.
We cook the recipes ourselves, adjust them as needed, and write clear instructions designed to help home cooks recreate the dish successfully.
If a recipe doesn’t work well in our kitchens, it doesn’t get published.
Testing Recipes in Two Kitchens
Many recipes on Homemade Food Junkie are prepared in both Diane’s and Kayti’s kitchens.
Testing recipes in two different kitchens helps confirm that the instructions are clear and the results are consistent. It also helps us catch small details that might otherwise be missed.
This collaborative testing process is especially helpful for recipes that involve baking, fermentation, or timing-based techniques.
Our Sourdough Recipe Testing Process
Sourdough baking has been a major focus of Homemade Food Junkie since 2020.
Both Diane and Kayti bake and test sourdough recipes for the blog. Diane also writes many of the detailed sourdough tutorials that explain fermentation, proofing, shaping, and troubleshooting common sourdough challenges.
Our goal is to make sourdough baking more approachable by helping readers understand not only the recipe, but the process behind it.
Garden-to-Kitchen Cooking
Gardening plays an important role in many of the recipes we share.
Diane writes much of the gardening content on the blog and often develops recipes inspired by ingredients grown in the garden. We share tips on growing vegetables, harvesting produce, and preserving food for later use.
Many Homemade Food Junkie recipes begin with seasonal ingredients and continue into the kitchen as meals, preserves, or pantry staples. During harvest Diane is heavy into the recipe testing process to use up all the garden produce or put it by.
Updating and Maintaining Recipes
As our recipe collection grows, we regularly review older posts and update them when improvements are needed.
Updates may include:
• clarifying instructions
• improving photos
• adding helpful tips from reader feedback
• correcting errors if they are discovered
We want the recipes and tutorials on Homemade Food Junkie to remain helpful and reliable for readers over time.
Reader Questions and Community Feedback
Reader questions are an important part of how we maintain and improve our recipes.
We monitor comments on our posts and do our best to respond with helpful guidance. Questions from readers often lead us to clarify instructions, add troubleshooting advice, or improve explanations within the recipe. If you have any questions on our recipe testing process, please let us know.
Your feedback helps make Homemade Food Junkie better.