Welcome To Crave The Good
Hi, I'm Allyson
I’m a sourdough specialist and recipe developer, trusted by over 2.8 million home cooks each year, and my work has been featured in Good Housekeeping, BuzzFeed, and Tasty.
Crave The Good is for cooks who value technique over shortcuts and the kind of recipes that reward patience, curiosity, and attention to detail. Here you’ll find recipes that ask for your time and attention: like 72-hour sourdough pizza dough, mango habanero fermented hot sauce, and low-and-slow smoked brisket. Because the best flavors can’t be rushed.
I also run Boreal Bloom Homestead, where I share the growing and raising side of our food journey. Understanding ingredients from the ground up makes me a better recipe developer, and I love bringing that perspective back into the Crave Kitchen.
Let’s be friends
As Seen On
What Makes Crave The Good Different
Specialty in Long Fermentation & Traditional Techniques
- Sourdough mastery: From same day sourdough to fudgy discard brownies, I’ve learned how to harness wild yeast for maximum flavor
- Fermentation expertise: Including fermented hot sauce, half sour pickles, I’ve learned to use traditional fermentation as a food preservation method
Farm-to-Table Expertise
Unlike many food bloggers, I don’t just cook with ingredients, I raise them. My husband and I have turned our acreage into a working homestead where we:
- Raise chickens for meat and eggs
- Raise pigs for meat each summer
- Maintain a large garden and multiple food forests
- Preserve and ferment our harvests
- Experience the complete food cycle from growing to cooking
This hands-on experience gives me insight into ingredients long before they reach the kitchen.
Comprehensive, Learning Based Approach
Whether you’re into artisan bread baking, backyard BBQ, wild fermentation, or indulgent desserts, you’ll find thoroughly tested recipes here. But this isn’t a site for shortcuts. I focus on recipes that build real skills, not 30-minute weeknight meals, but techniques worth learning, the kind that transform you from recipe-follower to confident cook who understands why things work.
Why You Can Trust My Recipes
Every recipe you find on Crave The Good has been:
I don’t just follow trends, I spend time mastering techniques, understanding why things work, and then sharing that knowledge with you in an approachable way.
My Passion: Sourdough
Sourdough is the ultimate from-scratch skill, and I'm here to guide you every step of the way. I discovered it in late 2019, and what started as a curious experiment became a deep mastery. I now maintain multiple starters and have developed over 60 sourdough recipes and comprehensive guides.
From naturally leavened breads to sourdough peanut butter cookies, sourdough discard pasta to sourdough cinnamon rolls, if you can make it with sourdough, I’ve probably tested it.
If sourdough feels intimidating, I’ll guide you through it step by step with detailed photos and explanations. Already confident? I’ll help you level up with techniques and creative flavor combinations.
Brand Collaborations
I’ve partnered with brands I genuinely use and trust, including Brod & Taylor (bread proofing equipment) and Avid Armor (vacuum sealers for sous vide and preservation).
Did You Know?
More than 200,000 cooks visit Crave The Good each month looking for trustworthy, flavor-filled recipes, and nothing makes me happier than seeing their successes.
My Story: From Can’t-Cook to Full-Time Food Blogger
I’ll be honest, when I left home at 18, I couldn’t cook. At all. If you’d told teenage me that I’d one day make a living creating recipes, I would have laughed!
When I discovered cooking, something clicked. What started as learning basic techniques quickly became an obsession. Over nearly 20 years, I’ve taught myself skills I never imagined having, from nurturing sourdough starters to smoking meatloaf, styling food for photography to preserving summer’s harvest for winter.
Each and every skill you see here came through countless hours of practice, research, and relentless curiosity.
From Scratch To Skill
Join 10,000+ home cooks learning from scratch! Get weekly recipes designed to level up your kitchen skills and confidence.
What Keeps Me Creating
I’m driven by creativity, learning, and connection. Every day I’m:
- Connecting with readers who share this passion for good food
- Experimenting with long fermentation and how time transforms flavor
- Mastering new techniques (there’s always more to learn!)
- Finding ways to make complex recipes more approachable
- Testing methods that save you time without sacrificing quality
More About Ally + The Blog
I started this blog as a stay-at-home mom with two little ones and a big craving; for good food, creativity, and something that felt like mine. That craving became the name, and what started as a simple food diary has grown into a comprehensive recipe resource for creative home cooks. And even now, 10 years later, the same thing that started it all still drives me: a craving for good food, new flavors, fresh skills, and creative kitchen adventures. I'm always learning, always experimenting, and always excited to bring you along with me.
As luck would have it, I started learning about sourdough mere months before the pandemic struck in 2020. It’s my absolute passion and the technique I’m most known for. I’ve been nurturing one starter for over 5 years now and I’m always experimenting with new flavors and ways to use sourdough.
I truly believe that the process of sourdough baking is soul salve – if I have a stressful day, you can be guaranteed to find me in the dough.
Yes! While Crave The Good is known for more time intensive recipes like sourdough and smoking, I have plenty of approachable entry points. Start with simple recipes like cross rib roast or easy no milk biscuits to build confidence, then work your way up to weekend projects like dill pickle hot sauce, 24 hour smoked pork butt, or braided sourdough babka.
It depends on what you’re making. Many of my recipes use standard kitchen equipment you probably already have. But for certain techniques, like smoking (requires a smoker or grill), sous vide (requires an immersion circulator), or sourdough baking (helpful equipment exists but I often share DIY options) I’m upfront about what you’ll need.
Every recipe lists required equipment in the recipe card, and whenever possible, I suggest alternatives or workarounds. My goal is to teach you techniques worth learning, and sometimes that means investing in the right tools, but I’ll always tell you exactly what you’re signing up for before you start.
Beyond The Kitchen: Our Homestead Life
Outside the Crave Kitchen, you'll usually find me on our rural Alberta acreage, living as simply and intentionally as we can. We raise bees, chickens, and pigs, tend a large garden, and grow fruit trees that someday (fingers crossed!) will become a proper food forest.
But it's not just about growing food. We render scraps of animal fat into homemade soap, whip up batches of tallow lip balm, and strive to use what we already have before buying anything new. Every project is an experiment in resourcefulness, creativity, and learning to rely a little more on ourselves each year.
That connection to the full food cycle, from raising to preserving to cooking, shapes every recipe I create. It keeps me grounded, inspired, and endlessly grateful for this slower, simpler life we're creating here.
Follow our homestead adventures at Boreal Bloom Homestead, where I share everything from raising livestock to preserving the harvest.
Fun Facts About Me
I’d rather be
tickling my chickens
Listening to
classic rock
grateful for
my family
Favorite place
my homestead
my weekends
gardening + family time
life Motto
no carb left behind
Thanks for being here. Whether you’re diving into your first sourdough starter or you’re a seasoned cook looking for your next challenge, I’m so glad you’re part of the Crave community.