Sharing my love of spending time in, and gathering together in the kitchen, the heart of the home, is a dream of mine! If you get nothing else from any of this, I pray you realize how truly important spending quality, meaningful time together with your family (blood related of not) really is!

I learned early on, meaning as a pre teen, that “If you feed them, they will come”. My love of being in the kitchen started as a child cooking and baking with my mom. Any time yummy food was made, it was magic, the family gathered, and I LOVED IT!

I quickly learned to bake on my own, and it still worked! When I baked everyone somehow ended up in the kitchen. Not always all together, but they always came.

My first remembrance of baking completely by myself (not counting brownies or box mixes) was at 12 years old. My parents had taken our visiting Japanese girls to the Las Vegas airport to fly home. They would be gone for 6 hours and within the first hour I was completely bored. My older brothers had ditched me for their friends and I needed something to occupy my time. I pulled out my moms recipe box and started searching. I’d watched my mom make bread before, but had never actually helped. I found the recipe and went for it. I don’t remember the details of how it went, but I do remember that I was amazed at how well it turned out! I still had a few hours until my parents would be home, so back to the recipe box I went. We had recently gathered pecans from my grandparents trees so when I saw the recipe for pie crust (which I had watched my mom make many times), I knew what was next. It surprisingly turned out beautiful, and I was completely in love with baking!

One major thing I want you to remember as you follow with us in sharing our kitchen with you…Do your best and then keep trying! I’ve been baking for over 35 years and am still learning new things! Each recipe you try, and each time you make it you’ll learn something new, whether big or small! Keep learning, keep trying, and keep sharing time with family and friends as you do!

I’m so excited to be sharing my love of baking, cooking, and spending quality time with family and friends with you!!!

Mama Lisa