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Magpie Maven How food blogger Karlynn Johnston hit the cookbook big league BY GENE KOSOWAN
ONE ODD CONFESSION that foodie
blogger Karlynn Johnston revealed on her website and hopes her readers don’t take seriously is that she’d rather burn down her house than clean it up. “I think that just comes from working at home,” she says while laughing about the premise for such a remark. “I have to clean my house as an all-in-one deal. Not many people have to work and clean at the same time.” It’s amazing that Johnston would even have time for it. On any workday in her Edmonton home, Johnston would be writing about kitchen tips, travel experiences and even some of her favourite Disney shows. That’s all on top of some 26 T8Nmagazine.com
2,000 recipes she’s added onto her Kitchen Magpie site (thekitchenmagpie.com) the past 11 years. Oh, and then there’s working on a third cookbook for Random House. She’s already hit bestseller status with the dessert-oriented Flapper Pie & A Blue Prairie Sky and a collection of ethnic and western-Canadian recipes that replete her second published outing The Prairie Table. Ever since a literary agent convinced Johnston to publish her recipes in print form, Johnston has become a culinary star thanks in part to appearances on U.S.-based shopping channel QVC and accolades from People Magazine, NBC’s Today Show and pop-culture website Buzzfeed. Before her publishing career took off, Kitchen Magpie was receiving up to 6,000 hits a month.
