The Best Teacher
I grew up with the best cook, my mom.
She is the best hostess for large groups of family and friends and would also make the best intimate family meals. Her trick? Double the sauce! Double the seasonings and taste test to make sure you don’t need more.
She is known for making the best greek dinners. The Greek Festivals are fun, but if you really want the most yummy Greek food, you should request a Greek Birthday dinner from her. When I was younger, I remember my mom cooking for groups of family and friends. She would cook (and also clean) ALL day and finally dinner would be served around 9pm!! Her meals are so elaborate that it just took that long to get everything prepared. As we have grown up, she has gotten much more efficient. She usually makes the Baklava the day before. She even found a yummy frozen spanakopita sold at Costco to make things a little easier.
“I’ll just bake him cookies”
From a young age, I was most attracted to baking. I loved making a double batch of chocolate chip cookies, cookie bars, and trying out new cake recipes. In high school, my mom would ask me if I ever wanted to learn to cook. I respectfully said that I prefer baking. She asked, “Well what are you going to make your husband?” With a smile, I responded, “I’ll just bake him lots of cookies!”
I have an especially fond memory of baking cookies during Christmas time with my grandmom.
Later on, I did end up figuring out that cooking is a lot of fun. As it turns out, the “only baking phase” was not sustainable when you aren’t living at home. I did get a marriage proposal from a guy in high school though after he ate some of my cookie bars. Those are definitely not made with seed-free oil.
I did get married, become a PA, and now am a stay-at-home mom. My husband, Ryan, does eat his fair share of my cookies, but we have come to enjoy lots of other recipes too! Our four kids probably wouldn’t mind if I only made cookies.
This recipe book is a combination of recipes that our family has come to love.
From my mom’s famous Greek recipes (that I have made my own to actually get them written down) to our favorite items to bake, I am always learning new things and making some old recipes even more yummy (if that is even possible). We even have added to our repertoire of kitchen gadgets and have different sections and ideas of how to cook with these different gadgets.