Why are you doing this?

I was an English major in college, love to read, love to cook. Instead of just complaining that Gourmet magazine only comes out once a month, I thought I'd try to put my energy toward something more productive.

What kind of material can we expect to see on littleplate.com?

Lots of articles and ruminations about food, travel, and maybe a little "lifestyle," once I figure out what "lifestyle" is. Oh, and recipes, too. A new piece will be up every Wednesday.

What do you like to eat?

Anything that isn't actually crawling off my plate. Though I do have some favorites: spicy Tex-Mex, Chesapeake Bay crabs with lots and lots of Old Bay, an amazing dip that my friend Karin and I created, crunchy tuna rolls, doughnuts of any sort, cheese...you get the idea.

If you could invite five famous people to dinner, who would they be? (For the purposes of narrowing this down, they should all be living.)

Julia Child, Calvin Trillin, Walter Cronkite, Nigella Lawson, Francis Ford Coppola (he could bring the wine, too).

Do you do anything besides eat?

Occasionally. I like to read, cook, travel, and study for the LSATs in my spare time.

Why would anyone go to a school that has a turtle as its mascot?

A terrapin is NOT a turtle. It's a mean little bugger, and you should fear it. Let's go Terps!

Is it true that you've entered the Pillsbury Bakeoff?

Yes, as part of a secret team of two. We should've won, too, but unfortunately our recipe didn't have a catchy name like "Meatball Pop" (an actual semi-finalist, by the way).