Holly Erickson & Natalie Mortimer
When starting their blog, The Modern Proper, these friends dreamed of reinventing the idea of hospitality for today’s homemaker. In each post, Holly and Natalie share recipes and entertaining ideas to inspire home cooks and change the way people think about gathering around food. Here, they share how they made their dream a reality. What inspired you to start a blog together?
We have a common desire to share our loved recipes and hospitality ideas with others. We’ve both had past soloblogging failures, so we thought if we worked together, we’d find our aspirations much easier to attain. With our shared love for food, hosting, creating and gathering people, we set out to make The Modern Proper. Over time, we’ve discovered a wonderful community of like-minded people who love any opportunity to host their loved ones while eating a delicious meal.
How do you define modern hospitality?
To us, hospitality is opening up your home and table no matter how humble they may be. It’s creating a space for loved ones to make them feel welcome and loved. It’s cooking a simple or elaborate meal that tells someone, “You have value.”
Do you have a favorite spring ingredient?
Salmon! We are true Pacific Northwest girls, so for us there’s nothing better than wild-caught fresh salmon. We love how versatile and easy it is to work with. Bonus: It’s extremely healthy and our kids love it.
What’s your secret weapon in the kitchen?
Good knives are everything. If you don’t own at least one good knife, get yourself to a kitchen supply store and treat yourself. We’ve also added a proper knife sharpener to our collection this year. Keeping our knives sharp makes our cooking adventures so much more efficient.
What does dinnertime look like in your homes?
Between the two of us, we have six children and two supportive husbands. Since our kids are still a bit too young for social lives, family meals happen daily. Now that the kids are getting older, we like to have them help prep, even if it’s as simple as stirring a pot of soup or chopping a cucumber. Many hands make light work, and we have many, many hands in our homes!
What do you love most about cooking?
We love that each time we create a recipe it’s something new. No matter how skilled you are or how many recipes you know, there is still so much more to learn. Cooking really never gets boring.