about jillian wade
creator of food folks and fun
I’m Jillian, the creator, and author of Food Folks and Fun. I have over 30 years of experience cooking for others. There’s nothing I love more than cooking for my family. Food is love, and cooking isn’t just putting a meal on a plate: It’s putting a little part of myself into that meal.
My culinary roots sprouted when I was 8-years-old, making my first batch of pancakes with my dad. Since then, I have continued making delicious home-cooked meals and treats as one of the ways I show my love and appreciation for folks.
my teaching outlet
I love learning about food, dish origins, and even the chemistry of baking. As a former teacher, I can’t help but to pass along everything that I’ve learned and the recipes that I’ve developed over the years. Food Folks and Fun is my platform of choice for sharing my cooking and baking expertise with the world.
recipe testing
I take cooking seriously. I rigorously test every single recipe that appears on my site. I don’t post a recipe unless I’ve gotten it just right. Take my Cannoli Cream recipe for example, I spent over a year and a half testing the recipe. Consequently, it’s the most visited recipe on Food Folks and Fun!
recipe inspiration
I’ve lived in a few different places; Connecticut, Utah, New Mexico, Virginia, Arizona, Rhode Island, California, Japan, and South Korea to be exact. Each of these places have influenced my recipes.
For example, my New Mexico Posole recipe is inspired by the meal the PTO at the middle school I taught at in Albuquerque would make for the teachers every Christmas. My New York-Style Thin Crust Pizza is a nod to the amazing pizza I had growing up back East. Beef Negimaki is a recipe that I learned how to make at a Japanese cooking class while living in Japan, and my Grandma’s Gloumpki recipe is the food of my Polish ancestors.
about food folks and fun
“Food Folks and Fun” was the motto my family adopted while growing up. Our house was the “party house”. Every holiday, birthday, and summer weekend we’d have people over for swimming, board games, croquet, and FOOD!
Even to this day we are all about breaking bread together and having fun at every twist and turn. When it came time to choose a name for my website, it was a no-brainer that Food Folks and Fun was it.
over a decade of blogging
I started Food Folks and Fun in the fall of 2010 and to say I had no clue what I was doing when I first started would be an understatement! I’ve learned SO much about running a website, online marketing, cooking, recipe creation, being a boss, managing a team, and myself along the way. I jokingly tell people that I’ve earned a master’s degree in blogging by how much I’ve taught and trained myself and others to do over the last decade.
explore with me
travel and recipe creation
I LOVE to travel (I’ve been to every single Disney theme park in the world!). Every Christmas season you can find me in Europe eating my way through Christmas Markets. My yearly pilgrimage has inspired recipes like Kinderpunsch and Hungarian Goulash.
If I can’t take all of my family members, friends, and readers along with me to new places, then the least I can do is share recipe inspiration from those places.
let’s work together!
Food Folks and Fun is growing at a rapid pace and I’d love to work with your company or brand. I’ve done a bit of everything, including product reviews and recipe development. To learn more about what I offer check out my PR & Media page.
