How It Began

One of the things that started me truly learning how to cook was the convenience of it. We were living in a rental way out of town when Hubby was in the army. We had one car (that's all you can afford when you are living below poverty level as most military families are) and Hubby had to take it to work every day.

It wasn't a big deal usually. But every once in a while, I would think I'd like to make some cake or something in particular for dinner or that rolls might be nice with lunch. And I'd realize I didn't have that box or can of thing or that thing in the freezer to do that. Nowadays, we think, well, why don't you just find a recipe on the internet. I'll tell you why -- there was NO internet then. The dinosaurs kept knocking down the lines. (ha)

So I was stuck unless I wanted to walk (with toddler in tow) or ride my bike (with toddler strapped into back). Or wait until Hubby got home, drive into town, shop, drive back, and then eat a peanut butter sandwich at 8:00 at night because I was too tired and hungry to mess with making it anymore.

Once a week or so, we would take Hubby to work in the morning and run to the library. Where I would load up books to read. I began making a substantial portion of those cookbooks, learn how to cook books, and books in general about homemaking things (like saving money, sewing, etc.). Pretty soon, I began to experiment with making home made bread, home made cake, home made entrees. My mantra became: "if it wasn't butchered or grown in the ground, there should be a way to make it from scratch."

And I found out that there often was. I found recipes to make everything from sweetened condensed milk to Cool whip to caramel corn in my own kitchen with normal ingredients. It was liberating, I have to say. And very convenient.

Surprisingly, I also found that it saved a lot of money and I suddenly lost 20 pounds (literally) without doing anything.

My journey began there and just progressed to the point it is now and is still going strong.

That 'convenience' (not to mention thriftiness) is what spurred me on to try making other things from scratch.

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