Who: Suzanne Fuoco
What: Pink Slip Jam
Where: Portland, Oregon

Suzanne Fuoco's background in fine art and cooking come together beautifully in her 3-year–old company, Pink Slip Jam. Her products taste like something from a fairy tale, as flowers, local produce, spirits, essential oils and spices collide into the most innovative jam flavors. Once you've gone Pink Slip Jam, your toast will never be the same. Here's a conversation with Suzanne and a peek into the kitchen where she concocts her jams.

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I first met Charley and Jessica while shooting their home for an Apartment Therapy house tour. Their entire house has a perfectly lived-in, chic vibe — family-friendly yet unbelievably cool and handmade vibe. The kitchen? It's no different. And what would you expect? This couple makes chocolate for a living!

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Who: Kim Boyce
What: BakeShop
Where: Portland, Oregon

Kim Boyce is a celebrated cookbook author and whole grain baker. (We've featured her James Beard award-winning cookbook Good to the Grain several times here on The Kitchn.) She recently opened a retail space, BakeShop, in a family neighborhood of North East Portland. Her confections are unbelievable and her cheerful attitude infectious. More

Melody is an architect and an avid home cook, so when she and her husband set out to build a new home in the hills of Portland, Oregon, they put a lot of energy into the cooking and dining spaces. The resulting kitchen is open, airy and perfect for hanging out with guests who can relax at the counter or the stunning reclaimed wood table at the adjoining dining room. Here's an extended peek into that rare, beautiful thing: A kitchen designed precisely for a home cook's taste and desires.

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Who: Kim and Tyler Malek - these two are cousins!
What: Salt and Straw, artisan ice cream
Where: Portland, Oregon

If you live in Portland, you know that Salt & Straw is really popular. What started as a small, hand–pushed ice cream cart has turned into a celebrated community hang out with a constant, gigantic line out the door—all within a year's time. And their list of innovative and ridiculously seasonal flavors is about as long as their ever–present queue of excited customers. More

Three years ago Hakarl and his partner Jili decided to conceive and raise a child with a lesbian couple. The child actually turned out to be a set of twins, and the two couples decided to form a family of their own making. Both couples bought apartments in the same building in Wiliamsburg, Brooklyn, and the two girls now spend time in each of the homes. This burgeoning family, according to Hakarl, necessitated a few kitchen tweaks. First on the list: an oversized table that could easily fit eight people.

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My friends Rachel and Alex live around the corner from me in the funky, historic urban neighborhood of Clintonville near downtown Columbus, Ohio. Our homes share some similarities: The worn-down beauty of an old kit house, a small yet bountiful yard, a modest kitchen.

And yet the similarities stop there: Rachel and Alex renovated their kitchen on a budget, using some seriously creative ingenuity, and they have created a true urban homestead, one that feeds and nourishes them, their daughter Lil, and a small menagerie of friendly creatures. We throw around the terms DIY, "homesteading" and "urban gardening" so frequently — come see what this really looks like, for a real American family in the city.

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Jeni Britton Bauer has a thing or two to tell artisans who want to create and sell good local food. "Be a rock star. You have to go out there and go at it like you're trying to be President of the United States." In other words, you probably need to do what she did: Work 80 hours a week. Don't take a salary for years. Be on your toes every single day. This is part of Jeni's story, which has become a story of truly local food making good on a wildly successful scale.

We visited Jeni a few weeks ago to hear her story in person, and to visit the kitchen where all her delicious ice cream is made. But that's not all: She's working on a book, and we wanted a sneak peek of the goodies that home cooks are going to get when it's released next summer. More

Scott renovated his kitchen entirely on his own, figuring it out as he went along. You'd never guess it from spending time in this delightfully bright space, a classic with a modern twist. He's certainly made the most of this funky layout with the use of strategically placed pantries and a keen sense of organization. Scott is also one of the most inventive cake makers I've ever met. This man's got a gift and no friend's birthday is complete without one of his outrageous confections.

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Who: Middle West Spirits micro-distillery
What: High-quality artisanal spirits made from local Ohio ingredients
Where: Columbus, Ohio

If you wanted to make a hand-crafted liquor with a "sense of place," then vodka, the most neutral and flavorless spirit, would be an odd place to start. Brady Konya and Ryan Lang, founders of Middle West Spirits, laugh as they acknowledge this irony. "Artisan vodka" almost seems like a contradiction in terms but somehow, they have created a vodka that does indeed have a sense of location in its environment, and their OYO Vodka is not actually a flavorless, neutral spirit at all — it's something very different.

Come walk through the Middle West Spirits micro-distillery in Columbus, Ohio, and see what it takes to distill a great bottle of vodka — and more. More