Hello!
I started my recipe blog Coconut & Lime in 2004 as a way to keep track of recipes I created and to share them with friends. It turned out to be one of the very first food blogs and helped me evolve from home cook to full-time professional recipe developer, copywriter, food columnist, and cookbook author. In addition to my passion for creating recipes, the average person can make at home, have a great interest in regional foods and food history and love to share this information with others. In fact, I have a BA in History (focusing on the socio-economic growth of cities) and MA in Education.
For the 2022-2023 cycle, I applied for and received a Maryland Folklife Apprenticeship grant (supported in part by the Maryland State Arts Council) as a master of my field and together with my apprentice, Kara Mae Harris created a spiral-bound book of “modernized” recipes we found in community cookbooks and archives around the state. I selected and “modernized” the recipes and Harris researched the lives of the women who contributed the recipes.
I’ve also developed recipes for Dole, the National Mango Board, OXO, the Shrimp Council, Eastern Fish Company, CajunCrawfish.com, Love Beets, Bahlsen, Vlasic, the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, Hellman’s/Best Foods, Lipton, Lay’s, Musselman’s Apple Butter, Imperial Sugar, Divine Chocolate, La Paloma Gourmet, Hidden Valley Ranch, Food Lion Supermarkets, Thrive™ Algae Oil, Martin’s Potato Rolls, Siggi’s Yogurt, Finlandia cheese (and butter!), and McCormick spices among other national companies and brands.
I contributed many articles to Parade.com. Check my posts out here!
I had a seasonal food column in Taste of the Bay Magazine for several years.
I was judge for the 2019 IACP cookbook awards, helping choose the single-subject cookbook winner.
I’ve written several cookbooks:
October 2023
Festive Maryland Recipes: Holiday Recipes from the Old Line State co-written with my Maryland Folklife grant apprentice, Kara Mae Harris
Order a copy here
The book includes essays about traditions from around the world and how they have been celebrated in Maryland by Kara Mae Harris and Marylanders’ recipes found in community cookbooks that used to celebrate holidays such as New Year’s Day, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Rosh Hashanah and St. David’s Day. The recipes include white potato pie, stuffed ham, blintzes, kuba, Italian Easter pies, and kinklings and more updated, transformed and researched by me, Rachel Rappaport, so you can recreate these traditions at home.
Christopher Kimball writing for Milk Street “This cookbook is a real treasure—it’s as if a team of first-class writers and designers got hold of a community cookbook and really did it right. It is also a bit of a hodgepodge, since it is difficult to easily define Maryland cuisine, given the diverse groups that landed there, from the Welsh and Germans to the Italians, Greek Orthodox and South Koreans. There are more than a few gems here, such as stuffed ham, roast turkey with sauerkraut, oyster stuffing, white potato pie, pudding cake, Cornish saffron bread, japchae (noodle stir-fry), kinklings (potato doughnuts), ginger cream cake, strawberry cobbler and spinach ricotta pie from Liguria. Whether you make any of the recipes or not, this book should be high on your gift list for anyone who loves culinary history.”
This is a limited edition mini cookbook featuring 25 of my “modernized” versions of recipes found in Maryland community cookbooks and archives. This book was paid for by my Maryland Folklife Apprenticeship grant (supported in part by the Maryland State Arts Council) I received as a master of my field. I wrote, printed and bound the book together with my apprentice, Kara Mae Harris, who researched the lives of the women who contributed the recipes. Limited free copies are available, contact me for details about shipping or delivery.
Cooking with Frank’s RedHot Cayenne Pepper Sauce: Delicious Recipes That Bring the Heat is available at local book stores, on Amazon in both hardback and Kindle editions and at Barnes and Noble in both hardback and NOOK editions.
My first cookbook, Everything Healthy Slow Cooker Cookbook features 300 new recipes from a wide range of cuisines and absolutely no canned soup. It is available on Amazon.com and in bookstores worldwide.
My second cookbook, Everything Whole Foods Cookbook, featuring 300 new recipes using whole ingredients, is available in stores and online now.
I contributed recipes and wrote the opening chapters to The Big Book of Slow Cooker Recipes and The Big Book of Vegetarian Recipes
I contributed several recipes to Good Bite Weeknight Meals: Delicious Made Easy and Ramps: Cooking with the Best Kept Secret of the Appalachian Trail which are available now!
I also love to talk about and share food:
I co-hosted the 2010 McCormick Spice Flavor Forcast webcast with Top Chef’s Richard Blais.
I was on a reality show hosted by Andrew Dan-Jumbo.
I organized Baltimore’s First Cupcake Camp and several Baltimore Food Blogger meet ups.
I did a live cooking segment about bananas on Fox 45 Baltimore on behalf of Dole.
I talked about rhubarb on NPR.
I judged the Ghirardelli chocolate contest at the Maryland State Fair.
I have an Aldi fan blog, Attention Aldi Shoppers
I have a book blog: Rachel Reads Books
I love hearing from readers! E-mail me with any questions.
I am active on social media:
Coconut & Lime’s Facebook Fan Page
Follow me on Twitter
Follow me on Instagram