Erika Monroe-Williams
North Valley Magazine’s Team North columnist Erika Monroe-Williams (aka The Hopeless Housewife) is anything but hopeless in the kitchen—most of the time.
By Sondra Barr
Photos by Scott Whitney
Styled by Shannon Campbell
Hair & makeup by Eric Rene Jimenez
Dress by Fashion by Robert Black, $275
Go big or go home is Paradise Valley resident Erika Monroe-Williams’s motto. Turns out she can do both and still take the cake. A former news anchor, Monroe-Williams has taken her passion for cooking and self-deprecation and branded herself as The Hopeless Housewife on television and the web. Now as one of North Valley Magazine’s new Team North columnists, Monroe-Williams will offer up creative cooking and domestic tips in each issue of the publication. Geared toward readers looking for fresh, easy recipes with a twist, her columns will help you whip up something quick and delicious for dinner.
Of course, Monroe-Williams is anything but hopeless in the kitchen as evidenced by her years spent doing cooking segments for shows such as Good Morning Arizona, Good Day LA, E! News, and the Hallmark Channel’s Home and Family, but it’s her kitchen blunders, which she creatively weaves into her Hopeless Housewife persona, that make her relatable to woman, especially those of us who find cooking less than joyful.
Just like many of us, Monroe-Williams has burnt bread, under- and overcooked food, and botched the seasoning. She admits she doesn’t always get it right in the kitchen, but she adds that getting it wrong is often part of the fun. She hopes her recipes, which are based on her own trial and error, bring an element of playfulness and inventiveness back into other people’s kitchens.
“The greatest things I’ve done in my life have come from making mistakes along the way and from learning from them,” Monroe-Williams says. She’s married to five-time All Star Diamondbacks’ former third baseman Matt Williams, which she doesn’t count as one of her bloopers. She met Williams after moving to the Valley to become a weekend anchor for KTVK 3TV in 2001, and they’ve been married 10 years. But it was after the birth of their daughter, Madison, that cooking quality meals became even more of a priority for the family.
Much like her mom and grandmother before her, Monroe-Williams has always loved cooking and has had a lifetime of experience in the kitchen both on and off camera. However, even she concedes that with a busy career and family, she’s occasionally felt hopeless in the kitchen. Suspecting that she wasn’t alone, she started thehopelesshousewife.com in 2012 after realizing that people needed a spot to check in to get the recipes and tips she was demonstrating in her morning television segments.
Her website has proven itself immensely popular and even helped score her an audition on the ABC cooking competition The Taste. In the first episode, Monroe-Williams presented the judges with a blind taste of her lime-and-coriander-crusted tuna. The dish earned her a spot on the show, and she made it to the fourth episode. Now, she’s working on two cooking-show concepts and finishing up her first cookbook. “I really want to take this brand nationally and have a line of kitchen products––the basics that every housewife should have,” Monroe-Williams says.
Daughter Madison, 9, is a crumb off the family cookie, letting loose and cracking jokes with her mom in the kitchen and as her occasional sidekick on cooking segments and photo shoots. “She always says, ‘Mom, don’t burn that bread!’ She knows that you don’t trust me when I’m trying to cook garlic bread or crostini in the oven,” laughs Monroe-Williams, who occasionally gets sidetracked by multitasking and forgets when the oven is on broil. “Madison knows I’m a good cook, but she also knows mistakes are human. I want her to take from this that it’s okay to laugh about mistakes and learn from them.”
And laugh all three of them do. Monroe-Williams’s family enjoys whipping up meals together in the kitchen and on the grill and takes pleasure entertaining friends and family. “Food brings people together. I’m going to tackle subjects that will help get people into the kitchen and bring families together during the dinner hour,” she says, which shows how hopeful and excited Erika Monroe-Williams is about being North Valley Magazine’s very own Hopeless Housewife!