Twenty-two-year-old Anderson Township native Caitlin Steininger, her big sis Kelly Trush, and her friend Molly Sandquist, make life easier for novice cooks and busy foodies with their Web site, www.cookingwithcaitlin.com.

How does your site help the culinarily challenged? We have a search engine, so if you’re at home and have a random can of black beans you can type in “black beans” and we’ll give you all the recipes that have black beans in them.

Hmm, it’s like Google for chefs. What kind of ingredient information do you provide? I don’t know if you ever watch those cooking shows, but all of a sudden, Rachael Ray is telling you to buy Chihuahua cheese. Well, in Cincinnati, that’s not in all the local grocery stores. At every job I do, I shop at Kroger or any local grocery stores. So everything that is on our Web site, you can pretty much buy at your grocery store.

Any local flavors on your live TV show? We met with Nick Lachey and he was like, “I love goetta. Do you have any goetta recipes?” Only a Cincinnatian would ask for a goetta recipe. But I have an awesome goetta burger recipe where I stuff ground beef with goetta in Montgomery Inn sauce. We definitely tap into a lot of Cincinnati products and [episodes will include] other great Cincinnatians who love to eat.

What do you think are people’s biggest misconceptions about making a good meal? How easy it is. That’s kind of cliché, but cooking is all about the willingness to do it. If you’re willing to make a mistake, then the next time you do it, you’ll never make it again.

You can catch Cooking With Caitlin’s live TV show on Thursdays on Time Warner Cable On Demand.

Originally published in the July 2009 issue.

WEB EXCLUSIVES