Elise Bauer, right, with father Tom and mother Alice in their Carmichael kitchen, the food-preparation laboratory for www.simplyrecipes.com.Oh, the irony. Elise Bauer, who at 42 knew little about cooking and had to move back into her parents' Carmichael home, is the force behind what might be the country's most successful food blog. Bauer has built www.simplyrecipes.com into a vast food community with about 4 million visits per month, she said. The beginnings in 2003 were not auspicious.