MY LATEST IDEAS FOR YOU

a history of the tomato with best storage practices, uses and recipes to make the most of summers' bounty

Tomato 101: Your Complete Guide to Choosing, Storing, and Using Summer's Star Ingredient

Whether you're working with a backyard haul, a farmers market score, or a grocery store flat, here's everything you need to make the most of tomato season.

Cynthia

2 days ago4 min read

Where Does Electricity Actually Come From? (A Genuinely Friendly Explanation)

You plug something in and it works. That's honestly enough for most of us, most of the time. But here's the thing — once I started understanding even the basics of where that electricity comes from and how it travels to your outlet, I started making decisions that have saved me real money. Not because I became an energy expert, but because a little clarity goes a long way. So let's start at the very beginning. Energy is just the ability to do stuff ... like work That's it. Wh

Cynthia

5 days ago3 min read

a bowl of bean salad surrounded by fresh vegetables, cans of beans and a bag of tortilla chips

Fresh Corn, Black Bean & Garbanzo Salad — Perfect for Summer

This salad is less a recipe and more a technique — you really just use whatcha got in the pantry and whatever's looking good in the produce bin.

Cynthia

7 days ago3 min read

Welcome!

I've been on this current path for about 15 years now — long enough to have made mistakes, changed my mind a few times, and figured out what actually works.

I started Simply By Cynthia as a place to share what I was learning about plant-based cooking and running a home well. Those things are still here. But the questions I was asking in the kitchen — about where things come from, what they cost, and what they leave behind — eventually followed me into every corner of my life.

Today my home runs on rooftop solar with Tesla Powerwall backup. I've been driving electric for more than a decade. I eat a whole-food, plant-based diet. And I spend a lot of time thinking about how the choices we make at the most practical, everyday level connect to much bigger things. My home has become something of a working model — for what's possible, what's affordable, and what genuinely makes life more comfortable and satisfying.

I'm not an expert in any official sense. I'm someone who has been paying close attention for a long time, asking questions, doing the math, and living with the results. What I share here is what I've actually learned — the practical stuff first, and the bigger picture when you're ready for it.

If you're curious about any of it — the food, the energy, the philosophy, or just how to make your home work better and cost less — you're in the right place.

Cynthia

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