DISH with Maya Wilson of Alaska from Scratch (For Edible Alaska)

How many times have you gone to the grocery store in search of ingredients for a recipe, only to scrap the whole plan because you can't find something? In Alaska, defeat at the supermarket can make newcomers to the Last Frontier feel even more isolated. It was this feeling — in part — that led Maya Wilson to create her blog, Alaska from Scratch.

As Wilson told writer Julia O'Malley in a 2016 Edible Alaska article, "The blog began as a hobby ... but it has become a life." The blogger and columnist now has another title: cookbook author.

The Alaska from Scratch Cookbook is filled with recipes, photos and tales from her life on the Kenai Peninsula. The simplicity of Wilson's recipes is perhaps what makes them so profound. They are approachable, not needing fancy kitchen gadgets or hours of prep. (OK, there are a few that are more time-consuming, but Wilson guarantees a reward on your investment.) My copy is now flagged throughout with sticky notes, marking recipes I have to try and one affixed to Wilson's homemade coconut coffee creamer recipe that says, "Would make great ice cream!" 

​But this is much more than a collection of recipes curated from her blog. Wilson invites readers into her life like never before in this book, its pages filled with photos from her childhood and her own children. She talks about her mother, her upbringing, and dealing with loss and self doubt. When you come out on the other end of this book, it's hard not to be inspired and proud — of this beautiful place we call home and the irrepressible people who live here. 

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