Our Resident Grocery Shopping Expert Tells Us About Her Favorite Cooking Tradition

Meet Ashley Schuering: One of the 60 million cooks in our Allrecipes community and an Allrecipes Allstar. Ashely's love for cooking started at a young age. Like many of us, it started because of her mom. “My mom was basically Martha Stewart when I was growing up. We lived out in the middle of nowhere, with the closest grocery store about 15 minutes away. She was super into from-scratch cooking and rejected the low-fat/low-calorie diet fads of the ‘80s and ‘90s. She taught all of us (me and my bookend brothers) how to cook when we were young—and she made it fun. We have pictures of us in diapers making our own pancake batter!”

It’s no wonder Ashley has continued in this tradition of using what’s around, what’s fresh, and what’s economical to this day. When she’s not making a batch of sourdough pizza dough or Southern-style pork chops with wilted mustard greens from her local CSA, she’s experimenting with Indian, Japanese, Ethiopian, and Vietnamese flavors. If we’re talking comfort food, it has to be mashed potatoes or homemade ice cream for Ashley. Plus, she’s become a total pro at stocking her pantry. More than anything, though, Ashley is all about calling on her family roots to inform her recipes. 

Ashley collected kids' cookbooks when she was young and really took to baking especially. She notes it was a great hobby for a shy kid like her—“cookies make friends!” Further, it was a way to connect to her mom. “My mom developed a severe wheat and corn allergy when I was about 10. This was before Celiac disease was well-known, and the organic industry was still nascent, so there were corn derivatives in basically everything...She was having a really tough time because she LOVED to eat, and all of a sudden, all her favorite things were off the table.” Since Ashley was deep into cookie making, she started experimenting with alternative flours. “I ended up developing a recipe for oat flour chocolate chip cookies that have become a family favorite. They’re thin, slightly crisp on the outside, and chewy on the inside, with a nice balance of salty and sweet. Guittard chocolate chips are a must!”

Her appreciation of cooking grew and evolved through high school and into college. “When parents would go out of town, my friends and I would throw dinner parties instead of ragers. In college, I cooked in the dorm, and when I moved into my first apartment, cooked almost every meal I ate.” Her first job was at a sushi restaurant, and she stayed in the restaurant industry, working full- or part-time, up until the pandemic. “Food is my passion!”

Ashley keeps memories alive through food as well. “My mom’s mom was Polish, so we used to eat pierogies and gowumpkies. Potato-cheese pierogi ruskie was one of my first blog posts and is one of my favorite things to make every year.”

Turning Happy Accidents Into Family Traditions

A particular memory is one that Ashley has turned into a favorite meal she breaks out for special occasions. “We’re a family of hunters (primarily waterfowl), and when we were young, my older brother and I accidentally started a tradition.” After a science experiment gone wrong, “We accidentally left the game freezer ajar overnight, and the meat all started to thaw,” she continued. In a lemons into lemonade moment, “My Dad contacted a friend of his at Frank Fat’s in Sacramento and got them to prepare all of the duck, pheasant, quail, geese, and more for a giant ‘duck feed’ with family friends. It was so fun, we started doing them every year. That was what I asked for for my sixteenth and eighteenth birthdays and high school graduation party.”

But the food-centered celebrations don’t stop there. “Cooking and hosting is one of my favorite ways to show the people I love I love them.”

Today, Ashley is still challenging herself to create new recipes, and new memories along the way, through her blog and work as an Allrecipes Allstar. “Before I started writing recipes for my readers, I was very much ‘a pinch of this, a splash of that’ kind of home cook, so even favorite dishes came out a little differently every time. While I still exercise that freedom often, I think forcing myself to write down the proper quantities of ingredients has made me a better, more thoughtful cook.”

Just don’t ask Ashley to pick a favorite. “It’s hard to pick a favorite, but my husband always says whatever I made that night is his favorite thing he’s ever eaten. While I can’t possibly believe it, it always makes me smile and feel grateful to have someone who appreciates the time and work that goes into it.”

This recipe for Asian-Inspired Pork and Mushroom Sloppy Joes is one of the go-to's Ashley has shared with us.

Getting to Know Ashley Schuering

We caught up with Ashley at home in Nashville, Tennessee, to discuss all things from her pups to her always-stocked pantry. Here's what she has to say.

• Tell us about yourself! I’ve lived in seven major cities–Sacramento, Chicago, Paris, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Nashville. My husband and I have two 70-pound black with white cream-filling lap dogs. Mikey (12) is a Great Pyrenees, Newfoundland, American Eskimo, Alaskan Malamute, Samoyed, collie mix, and Ozzie (8) is a pittie-boxer mix. Both are rescues. Adopt, don’t shop!
• What's always in your pantry? That list is a mile long! My blog is called “Confessions of a Grocery Addict,” and it’s very accurate. Before the pandemic, people thought I was nuts because my pantry, fridge, and freezer were always so stocked. But then, when the world fell apart, and grocery shelves were bare, my friends and family could “shop” my pantry for anything they needed. If I had to choose a short list, butter, eggs, Greek yogurt, sharp Cheddar, sourdough starter, mustard (all kinds!), mayo, and arugula are always be on hand in the fridge.
• Your pantry? The pantry is always stocked with beans (I’m obsessed with Rancho Gordo for dried beans, but I keep cans on hand for quick meals, too), rice, pasta, tinned fish, and flour (AP, bread flour, 00 flour, and oat flour).

• What kitchen tools can you not live without? A sharp chef’s knife or Santoku knife and a fish spatula. (Pro tip: Buy a knife sharpener. Dull knives are more dangerous than sharp ones.)
• What’s your go-to meal when you don’t feel like cooking (but still have to)? I love to make “sushi bowls” with microwaveable sticky rice. I take a can or two of tuna or salmon, add Kewpie Mayo, Sriracha, a handful of green onions, a drizzle of rice vinegar, soy sauce, and sesame oil to make a cheap “spicy tuna,” then spoon that on top of the rice and add sliced sushi ginger and a few shakes of furikake. It takes 10 minutes max, and there’s almost no cleanup after! I also love sandwiches and tartines of all kinds (especially on homemade sourdough), baked potatoes filled with just about anything (chili, Cheddar and steamed broccoli, leftover pasta sauce, etc.), and generally have a bag of frozen potstickers and a salad kit hanging around for super lazy nights.
• So tell us, what is for dinner tonight? A sheet pan dinner! I love being able to throw everything on one pan with parchment paper to make cleanup a snap. As for which one? It’ll be a last-minute decision based on meat prices at Aldi.
  

To Ashely, being a home cook means “Being self-sufficient, exercising creativity, and learning to use what you have.”

Check out Ashley's profile to follow her along on her Allrecipes Allstar journey.