For a little over a year now the “Clean Plate” feature of The Spirit has been satiating the collective palate of its readers.  With diverse recipes covering everything from a hot and tangy Korean pan-fried chicken dinner to savory Oktoberfest beef brisket to a cool, healthy quinoa-avocado salad to homemade marshmallow, it would seem that there are few frontiers in the cooking world Casey Ann Francis is afraid to traverse.  So where did Francis’s love of the culinary arts come from?  Is there anything she can’t cook?  What is the ethos that drives one to consistently, perhaps compulsively find and share new recipes?

This last question yields a few layers of answers.  “I love to cook,” Francis says, and asserts, of at least equal importance, “I love to eat.”  Her passion for food and the creativity of cooking is something she wants to pass on to her readers.  “I don’t understand people who don’t like to cook,” says Francis.  “Even if things don’t turn out perfectly you still end up with something good to eat.”  Reflecting on some of her own cooking “blunders” Francis described a double chocolate birthday cake gone awry.  “I was kind of in a rush to finish it.  The recipe said one thing on time and temperature but it didn’t quite seem right.  In the end I had to spackle it back together with icing.  It was a mess, but at the same time, a double chocolate mess; everyone ate it.”  Another recipe, which also turned out to be delicious, left her house “smelling like cheese for days.”

There are no real failures in the cooking world so long as you enjoy yourself, and whether a recipe turns out perfectly or poorly, you still have a story to accompany it. This is something Francis has capitalized on with her contributions to The Spirit as well as her food blog, www.cleanpl8.com. “I enjoy writing a lot and telling stories, especially with the blog.  The blog is kind of like a diary.  It’s funny to look back on things a year later and see what I was doing.”  Looking back through the stories in both her blog and articles in The Spirit–right up to the recent story behind Francis’s recipe for delicious traditional Italian biscotti in the June 1 edition of The Spirit–shows a familiarly wholesome influence for Francis’ love of cooking.  “I have a lot of memories of going to Reading Terminal Market and the Italian Markets with my aunt.  Specialty shops like those are so much better than grocery stores.”  Indeed, such venues for creative ingredients spawned not only a love for cooking, but also a love for the city of Philadelphia.

“I’ve always been a city girl,” Francis says.  She was born in Mayfair, and then moved to Bensalem and eventually Roxborough.  Even there Francis says, “I knew I’d always be back.”  And so she has, living in Fishtown full-time for a little over a year now.  Instead of car trips into the city she enjoys the ease of being able to simply jump on the El to seek out specialty items at Reading Terminal or to find fresh ingredients with an easy walk to Greensgrow.  “Several of my recipes are fueled by what I happen to be craving,” she says.  And aside from the ease of acquiring ingredients to satisfy such cravings, the city offers several other opportunities.  While Francis has no restaurant experience, she says, “I’ve taken some community cooking classes in the city,” and encourages her readers to do the same, especially those who are new to cooking.  She encourages her readers to cook in general.  “I want people to feel comfortable and trust me.  I try to stick with recipes that are manageable, but every once in a while I’ll throw in something crazy to try to expand my readers’ palates.”  It’s all to motivate people to try their hands at cooking and enjoy all the benefits that cooking can provide.  “There’s nothing better than gatherings with friends and family with some wine, a big meal, and great conversations.  I like cooking for other people and knowing that something I did made them happy.  Hopefully cooking can do the same for others, make them happy.”

So what does the future look like for Casey Ann Francis?  “I would love to make this a career, pursue something to combine cooking and writing.  I’d like to write a book one day, or write for a magazine to continue the process of researching recipes, cooking, eating, and testing.”  But for right now cooking remains a very rewarding hobby.  For the future Francis asserts that there is but one certainty, that if and when she has children, “They will have the best cupcakes to bring into school on their birthdays.”

So follow along with The Spirit as Francis’ recipes keep rolling in, and don’t forget to check out other recipes and restaurant reviews at www.cleanpl8.com.  This week, Francis goes all out with Joe’s special birthday cake.  See Clean Plate on page 9.