Welcome to my website!
Cooking and baking has always been a huge part of my life. Back in elementary school, the first book I ever bought from the school book drive was a cook book. It cost 55 cents, which must have been a lot for a 7 year-old. I still have the book today. It’s the Girls & Boys Easy-to-Cook Book.
We were pretty fortunate growing up in a family of eight. Our parents let us cook anything we wanted, anytime we wanted. As an adult, I can easily see how these kitchen lessons were more about getting along with others and allowing children the freedom to make mistakes. Even though I was the youngest, my parents and siblings were great about letting me experiment in the kitchen. This sentimental cook book holds great memories of Mom guiding me as I made some of the favorites: Jack-and-the-Bean Salad, Midget Meat Loaves, Junior Banana Splits, and Mother’s Day Donuts. It’s fun to read the recipes now and recall how important it was for me to make these for my family. Pencil markings are still visible where my mom helped me double the recipe for Jack-in-the-Bean Salad to accommodate our big family. I never recall the results being less than perfect, but they most assuredly were. What a great family to let me try any recipe and to eat my mistakes without complaint.
As I grew older, so did my kitchen experience, along with the range of dishes I could successfully prepare by myself. But I loved cooking and baking with my siblings the most. Cookies were a favorite thing for us kids to bake on a whim. We’d make oatmeal cookies and switch the flavorings with different extracts like orange and lemon, along with added citrus zest. Once we even used all the food coloring in the house when we experimented with marzipan. We had a blast trying to shape our cookies to look like little fruits, just like in the Betty Crocker Cook Book. They tasted awful, but they looked magnificent to us!
My upbringing really fostered my level of confidence in the kitchen. At age 10 or 11, I prepared my first Thanksgiving meal. I insisted on it! Luckily for me, my parents were very encouraging. I did have some help, but did most of it myself from planning to cooking and even the dishes, which was less enjoyable with no dishwasher in those days.
As a teenager, I loved cooking dinner for my parents at least once a week, complete with full table setting and fresh cut flowers from the back yard. I loved to can tomatoes and make jams from our many fruit trees and the strawberry patch. And when I worked for Winnie at the seasonal pumpkin patch, she knew my love for all the things she could teach me. She would give me produce that was about to go bad and tell me how to blanch and freeze it, or make pickles with it, or soup.
Cooking and baking is a part of me. I love when my grown children ask me for a recipe. They are the reason I am passionate about creating this space. I have so much to share with them and with YOU! I have big plans for this site. I hope you’ll stick around for the journey. I think you’ll love what’s ahead. It’s an honor to have you here.
Recently I did an internet search to see if Girls & Boys Easy-to-Cook Book is still available. I found it on Amazon for significantly more than the price I paid. I didn’t buy a new one. I have the original, along with all the memories of making these simple introductory dishes for a grateful family who taught me more about life, love, and the importance of learning from mistakes than about actual cooking.
With love and thanks,
Laura