Saturday, August 6, 2011

About Me

Letting you know a little about myself will help you understand why I decided to begin this blog.  I have been cooking since I was 8 years old.  Cooking and shopping have been a big part of my life for half a century!  Wow, that  makes me think of my grandmothers and how much I admired their ability to create such wonderful,delicious meals with what they had in the cupboard.  I was even allowed the opportunity to participate in preparations such as churning butter, making homemade yogurt and cottage cheese, mashing potatoes with a hand masher, rolling out pie dough, etc.  Oh the memories and the list could fill the page but you get the idea.

Growing up on a dairy farm, we raised our own beef and pork and grew our own vegetables. Summers were filled with canning and freezing our fresh produce and making jelly.  Baking was one of my weekly chores.  I was responsible for making enough desserts to last a family of five for a week at a time.  As my skills increased I became the "chief cook and bottle washer" and grocery shopper for the family until I graduated high school and left for college.

Young married life and entertaining encouraged gourmet cooking and a large collection of recipe books.  I always enjoyed hosting a party!  As the years passed I found myself raising three children in a very small rural town while working full time and carrying a full college load as a single parent.  That pushed me to develop one dish meals.  Anything that could be made quickly and easily and still tasted good.  Our quality time together was during meal prep time and  the kids were at the counter doing homework. We always ate supper together.  Having everything in one dish also got the kids to eat vegetables!  So my gourmet cooking skills became whatever was quick and easy.  Those are the skills I have continued with throughout my 26 year career as an educator and now as a retiree living alone.

Trying to eat healthy and having food go bad before I could use it is what lead me to Shelf Reliance/ THRIVE.  I don't have to worry about wasting food. With THRIVE my produce is always fresh and much of the prep work is already done!  I have found numerous blogs and websites with recipes for large families but I want more ideas for one meal at a time for 1,2,or 3 people.   This blog is intended to help individuals and small families have recipes for healthy, tasty food.

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like this is going to be a fun blog! Looking forward to reading your recipes :)

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  2. Thank you Becky. I hope I live up to your kind words. Happy eating.

    ReplyDelete