My Mom has always been a big cooking inspiration in my life and encouraged me from a young age to try recipes. She allowed me to make desserts for important things, probably out of necessity to get a helping hand. I grew up learning how to garden by her example, making bread for 4H, perfecting pie crusts and enjoying homemade goods throughout my childhood. After I was married and cooking for my own family I began trying to replicate some of the recipes she cooked for us and found myself calling her every single time I wanted to roast a chicken or make potato-sausage soup. (Heaven forbid I write something down) Sometimes, the recipes didn't turn out quite right and we would figure out later that she had forgotten to tell me an important ingredient. (Heaven forbid she look at a recipe while she gave it to me)
My Grandma Stella was a fabulous cook and anyone who knew her had a favorite dish or treat that she prepared. She made the best Rhubarb Cream Dessert, Apple Dumplings, Sugar Cookies, Caramel Rolls, Potato Salad and Chicken Noodle Hot dish. Everything she baked was perfection. Come to find out, when my mom would ask her for recipes, Grandma Stella often left out an ingredient. Whether she meant to or not, we will never know, but I think it's kind of a funny. Grandma Stella had special measuring tools; her 'cup' wasn't a true cup, though she was a true cook. She measured and tweaked until it looked right.
It became clear to me December of 2010, when we made goodies for the annual Cookie Baking Extravaganza before Christmas that Mom, Lisa and I seemed to have the same questions year after year. Writing every detail down once and for all was going to put an end to second guessing on special recipes that are only made once a year. As we talked, we kept adding recipes that the others made that we can never get just right and the list grew. And grew. And grew some more.
The need for a cookbook, a family cookbook, was born. We would have all those special recipes in one spot and know exactly how to make them and pass on our traditions to our children and grandchildren.
Creating a blog to collect recipes seemed like the easiest way to go. Adding pictures for fun and forcing myself to measure ingredients so I can document recipes and someday have a cookbook to share with my kids is the purpose of this blog. The only problem is, at this point, the list is so long they will be lucky to get the book before they're 40.
Meet my pride and joy!!! {I share a private blog with close family and friends, so you won't find much about my personal life here at Stella B's Kitchen. Unless you count food, then I get real personal:) However, I do enjoy seeing a couple photos of bloggers out there to get a sense of their personalities and thought I would share a couple.}
