Tieghan Gerard’s recipes come from a place of passion and compassion. A food stylist, recipe developer, and author, her blog Half Baked Harvest is filled with recipes that are inspired by the people and places she loves most. A hearty mix of savory, sweet, healthy, and indulgent recipes, recent favorites include the Baked Blueberry Cinnamon Sugar Doughnuts and Stir Fried Honey Ginger Sesame Noodles.
According to Gerard, her love of cooking comes from her family. Coming from a family of ten, a big family meant even bigger meals. In an effort to tame some of their mealtime chaos and get dinner on the table at a respectable hour, Gerard began to help cook by the age of 14.
“I am one of seven kids, so my parents had their hands full with my brothers and me,” she further explained in an interview with All Sorts Of. “We wouldn’t eat until nine or ten at night. One night I just decided I was making dinner. I think I made a Rachel Ray recipe and everyone loved it. I’ve been cooking for friends and family ever since. I love to cook for people, seeing their reactions is so rewarding!”
Her dedication paid off. The author of the Half Baked Harvest Cookbook and Half Baked Harvest Super Simple, a New York Times bestseller, over the years Gerard has amassed a following online, with her Instagram page alone sporting an impressive 3 million (!) followers.
“My cooking has changed so much from the start of HBH,” says Gerard. “Back in the day my recipes were long and far too complicated to cook up on weeknights. Over the years I’ve really learned to create recipes that are easy, but still consist of layers of flavor. My goal is to create recipes that are easy enough for weeknights, but taste like they took hours to make. I’m not one for boring recipes and I’m all about layers of flavor and texture.”
Based in Colorado, Gerard lives in a converted horse barn that was designed entirely around her lifestyle. “It’s where I shot my first cookbook, and where I spend my days experimenting with new recipes, photographing my creations, feeding my family, and making one giant mess in the process,” she writes on her website.
