Someone's in the kitchen with Mama...

My grandmother was an amazing country cook.  My mother didn't enjoy being in the kitchen.  In addition, we were growing up during the grand "we can freeze it or can it and put it in the grocery stores, and it's almost like fresh" marketing adventure.  It wasn't.  The final straw was that my mother had to stop adding salt and reduce fat in our food in about 1966.  We were eating healthy when healthy wasn't cool...or tasty.

My mother wasn't a huge fan of help with housework.  In her mind, an appliance used by children wouldn't last 35 years.  This was probably an accurate statement.  So we didn't help Mom in the kitchen.

Consequently, when I got married in 1979, I didn't have a lot of "housewife" experience.  I was sooo excited to have my own space.  I actually polished the copper bottom off of one of my pans the first year I was married!  However, I had grown up in a house that had a microwave in 1968 (Dad built it for my mom at Christmas).  I had the best of intentions but I kept forgetting to defrost the meat for dinner.  Eventually I got it together.  Actually I got a microwave...but it worked out the same!

When I had children, I decided that they needed to be functional in the kitchen.  Not cordon bleu, but able to prevent starvation.  For DJ, this was (and is) as good as it got.  He subscribes to my mother's philosphy of cooking--get in, get r done, get out!  Cindy is a totally different child.  She loves to cook, as long as it is a menu of her choice.

We have been collecting recipes for years.  We live on a sugar free, egg free, shellfish free diet.  This does add a few challenges, especially with baking.  We usually print our recipes on 8 1/2 by 11 paper and stick them in a binder.  About a year ago, it occurred to me that we should start copying our favorites and create a binder for Cindy.  And include information such as--copper bottom pans do not need to be polished weekly and don't forget to defrost the meat for dinner.
Feeling blessed, how about you?