My name is Maura and I have finally taken the plunge to start a blog to share my passion for all things food. Not that I had any formal training but I love experimenting with recipes all the time, like every weekend, and sharing them with my husband, friends, family, and coworkers! They are my ‘test kitchen tasters’ to let me know of any tweaks and changes to improve a recipe or modify it to make it even better. It’s an evolving process that provides a creative outlet for me. Being in the kitchen is very therapeutic and relaxing. I’m looking forward to sharing with you my lessons along the way! Welcome!
When did all this begin?
So how did I come to love cooking so much? It started when I was a little girl watching my mom bake in the kitchen. Too young to use the real oven, I was using an easy bake oven to make cakes and cookies and could spend hours doing that while my mom was cooking in her real oven making yummy goodies for us every day! When I was older, I started cooking in my mom’s kitchen using box mixes making brownies and cake, and the occasional homemade toll house cookie.
What am I going to eat now?
Once I was in graduate school, I lived in an apartment and was cooking for myself for the first time, real food for dinners mostly. At least that’s what I called pasta and store-bought red sauce, and Lipton parmesan noodles from the package. Then I ventured out and started trying my mom’s Hawaiian chicken recipe and even invited friends over for dinner to share my success.
This is when I met my now-husband and we became best friends and then started dating. When we graduated, we moved to Colorado. We did not have much money and would make meals at home using recipes we both learned from our moms, things like homemade red sauce. We would take turns….I would make my mom’s recipe and then next time my husband would make his mom’ recipe which included meat balls which were amazing, both recipes passed down from our grandmothers. My husband had a nice repertoire of recipes that he learned from his mom and family who are all incredible Italian cooks. And I had my set of meals that I learned from my mom. So we didn’t starve!
Getting Fancy!
We got more fancy eventually and started experimenting with recipes from food magazines. This became ‘our thing’ to pick a recipe for a Saturday night dinner and prepare delicious meals, We were creating a good life, eating well on a small budget.
The more we cooked and had success, the more we tried experimenting with different types of cuisines and spices. I started making more soups from scratch which turned into making my own homemade broth every time I made a batch of soup, so I could freeze that for the next time that I made a batch of soup.
In the last few years, I’ve been interested in developing my palette, taking time to study and make recipes from other cuisines including Thai, Indian, Moroccan, Spanish, and Mexican.
“What is for dinner tonight?”
Both my husband and I work during the week. We ask each other every morning “What is for dinner tonight?” What we have learned is that cooking big on the weekends saves us so much time during the week. So when we do ask “what is for dinner?”, most of the time we can pull something out of the freezer and let it thaw on the counter and then we have a healthy, easy, amazing meal for dinner with very little cooking time. So now, we continue to do our experimental cooking on a Saturday evening, cook big on Sundays, and eat amazing meals all the time.
An Amazing Gift
When I got married almost 20 years ago, my mom gave me a gift for my bridal shower which was a collection of her recipes that she had collected over the years from her mother, my grandmother and others for me to use in my kitchen. This amazing gift is referenced EVERY weekend as we plan meals and look for inspiration for our next meal. It has grown over the years, adding recipes as they are trialed and deemed a success, to be made again and again. I even keep a designated section for recipes I am inspired to try, that I have found while researching through my favorite resources.
Out of all this, and having a ton of time on my hands now, my blog is born…….
I was recently on vacation when I fell and broke my wrist, which has been pretty life-changing to say the least. While not working, I was trying to figure out what the heck to do with all this time? I needed to do SOMETHING to keep my brain functioning ‘normally’ and keep me from going crazy mad. My sister and I had been talking recently about starting blogs, not really sure if either one of us was serious enough to give it a whirl. And here this opportunity opened up and it has given me a sense of purpose, while trying to appreciate this gift of time off from work, despite the circumstances.
My Dad is my biggest fan!
When my mom would go away on her winter vacation, my dad would be flying solo at home, eating meals my mom had prepared in advance. Or he would go to the local grocery store to get some prepared foods, including his desserts, a MUST for any irishman EVERY NIGHT. He fared pretty well, even making the occasional grilled cheese sandwich at home and throwing on a pot of coffee in the morning. As soups are ‘my thing’ for winter weeknight meals, I always make a double batch and freeze in serving sizes for two for quick, easy, and healthy meals. So I would bring over some of these ‘frozen soups’ for my dad while my mom was away, including maybe some of Mom’s Homemade Tomato Sauce. He would rave about them! One time, he told my mom that the pasta sauce he was eating was the best sauce she’s made in a long time and my mom told him it was because I made it! I do use more garlic and spices than my mom and he does like more of a kick so he loved it! Upon launch of my blog, my dad reminded me that ‘your father gets first dibs on all that I cook!’
Dedicated to my Mom!
My mom continues to share her love of cooking with her family and friends because it makes her happy. Through her, I have learned this same joy for creating and sharing good food with my family, old friends, and new friends because FOOD DOES EQUAL HAPPINESS!
