How to Use This Site
Welcome to my kitchen, my family table. One of my great joys in life is preparing dinner for my family. Fresh ingredients, classic techniques, solid recipes for dishes that are staples in my family’s repertoire of dinners — all of these create a magic around your table that nourishes nutritionally, spiritually and emotionally. The love you show your family on an evening when you prepare dinner is more dear than any consumer item they may be begging you for at the moment. Long after the “must have” is wadded up in the back of your child’s closet, there is still the love of family dinner within them. For me, there are few better feelings than the one I get when my darling daughter requests a favorite dinner, and the sincere delight she shows when her plate is served that evening is all I need to continue experimenting in the kitchen.
Getting dinner on the table on a regular basis takes attention and dedication. That is where I may be able to help. Use this site as an idea generator, a short cut, an instructional guide, an auto-pilot tool, an expedited grocery list. I have some tips listed below:
- I try to feature one family dinner every week on my blog. Each family dinner is then tagged and is listed under the “Recipes” tab. That is a quick place to go to for reference when planning your weekly family meals. The shopping list for each meal is listed within that family dinner entry as well as links to the recipes.
- If you’re just looking for a basic recipe you can take a look at the various recipes under the same tab and find some inspiration. If your family doesn’t like this or that, you can customize your own meals using my recipes. As the blog grows, so too will the recipe choices. Grow with me.
- I have found that getting some instruction on the basics has required more legwork than most family cooks are willing to expend. Under the “Family Cookery” tab you will find videos of some basic techniques, and these techniques will be linked within relevant recipes. Chopping basics, the perfect roux, becoming a gravy goddess — you will find videos to assist you. As the blog grows, so too will the videos. Again, grow with me.
- Outfitting a new kitchen? Trying to outfit yours after years of making do? There is my list of the perfectly outfitted kitchen in the “Family Cookery” tab. I don’t always think latest gadget is fabulous so it’s not full of superfluous stuff. We all have our personal preferences but this gives you a good place to start.
- Feeling pooped? We all do here and there. Feeling like you’d prefer to put your head in the oven rather than a roast? I’ve been there. My hope with some of my blog entries is to reach out to others with my own sincere honesty as it relates to family, cooking and life in general. Life is not always a perfect family dinner. Sometimes we hit the skids and we are up to our elbows in what feels more like whirling e-coli than an armful of lovely farmers market goods. In the blog I try to celebrate all that life is — good meals and bad.
Join me in the kitchen and prepare dinner for your family tonight. It doesn’t always, but sometimes it really does just make everything better for you and those you can’t live without. I’ve said this before but it bears repeating — Fixing dinner for your family, no matter the quality of the finished product, tells those around your table this truth—
“I thought of you today, and I love you more than you know.”