barrera family photo

About Clove & Crumb

Welcome to Clove & Crumb!  My name is Amber and I’m a wife to my best friend, and a mom of two sweet and wild little boys. 

I always thought I loved food and baking so much simply because I loved to eat (ha!).  However, I’m realizing my love for food is linked even deeper to a love for feeding people. Even though I can’t have you all over for dinner, or morning coffee and cinnamon rolls, it feels like I’m getting to feed y’all by sharing these recipes with you at Clove & Crumb.  And I love that! 

I started Clove & Crumb recently in the spring of 2023. I was tired of finding and trying super popular recipes online, only to try them and find they simply did not taste good (I’m sure we’ve all experienced this). I have no formal training training in the kitchen, unless watching all episodes of Great British Baking Show counts?  Recipes you find at Clove & Crumb will be simple, and if they are not, know that I probably messed it up before getting it right. That being said, my goal is that every recipe on Clove & Crumb simply tastes good. As all good recipes should.

Thanks for joining me on the blogging journey as we cook some tasty food together!


My Inspiration

A handful of women really inspired me in the area of food throughout my life- my Mom, my Aunt Cindy, and my Grandma.  My Mom is passionate about healthy eating. While I didn’t fully appreciate this as a child, I can fully appreciate it now as a mom myself.  My four siblings and I owe it to my mom for raising us with a basic understanding of healthy eating. Not to mention she has some of my favorite recipes that you’ll find on here. 

My Aunt Cindy is the hostess-extraordinaire.  If you stay at her house, she will treat you like a king or queen for the duration of your stay.  She also inspired me to start this blog! She has her own food blog called “Can I get that Recipe?”. I visit it multiple times a month to snag a good recipe. Check her blog out, anything you choose to make I promise will be delicious.

And lastly, my Grandma.  My grandma is with Jesus now and I miss her all the time.  I have so many vivid memories of her spending her days cooking in her kitchen to feed a house full of people.  Some of her specialties etched in my memory are her fried pancakes, Barbie cake for a birthday, and her famous homemade noodles for the holidays. Grandma was known for her cooking all around her small Midwest town and, of course, within our family.  I inherited her butcher block cooking island that most of my photos for Clove & Crumb are taken on.  I love that I have a part of her with me in my kitchen.  


Thanks for visiting!

Mirroring how my own family tends to eat, you’ll find some healthy recipes on here, and some not at all.  You may find some original recipes, but I’m no professional.  Maybe I’ll get better at writing my own recipes, but my main goal is for Clove & Crumb to house a variety of other people’s favorite recipes. Whether it’s Joy’s Honey Pecan Chicken Salad, Nanny’s Santa Fe Soup, or Dad’s Egg-In-Toast, everyone has their go-to, never-fail recipes that are all different and unique. Just think of Clove & Crumb as a treasure chest full of all of these beloved dishes.  

I hope you enjoy your time here, and most of all, I hope you make something delicious for yourself, your kiddos, or a neighbor down the street.