About Finding Joy in My Kitchen

My paternal grandmother raised 9 children.  I hear stories that she used to bake more than 10 loaves of bread at a time. She and my grandfather butchered their own cows and chickens, made their own pickles and grew all their vegetables and grains.  

I'm not like that.  

I work full time outside of the home, teaching college kids about plants, food and the basics of biology.  My husband works full time too, and although we have a garden, I can't imagine having cows and chickens in our backyard.  Did I mention I'm not an animal person?  Hence why I study plants.  

I did inherit (whether by genes or default) my love of cooking and baking from my mom and grandmothers.  All three of these amazing women were committed to feeding their families wholesome meals -- one did it in record time as kids were running in and out, one did it while working full time outside of the home, and one did it while working at home.   

To do just that requires simple ingredients; you know, the ones you always have on hand.  Not some one-time-use spice or herb that requires an extra trip to the store and never gets used again.  What do I use capers for again?  

And, that's my goal.  Frog Prince and I want to feed our family meals that are as much from scratch as possible.  We believe in good food, and good food that is easy to make!  

About Us

I (SnoWhite) have been married to the love of my life -- my Frog Prince -- since 2007.  Since then we've:

• Completed our PhDs
• Acquired real jobs
• Moved 600 miles 
• Bought our first house, & 
• Started gardening

We picked up cooking as a hobby during graduate school, motivated to find a way to manage my food allergy while cooking healthy, easy meals on a budget.  We started with an apple pie {not the easiest place to start, but, alas, that's where we began} and from there we quickly learned that cooking from scratch was not only easy but it was fun too.

About Finding Joy in My Kitchen

I was standing in the bread aisle of Meijer -- 600 miles away from home.  

As I picked up and read the label for each loaf of bread made with some type of whole grain they all contained the same warning about being processed with, made on equipment with or actually containing nuts.  Urg.  

Nearly in tears - I called my mom.

"Mom.... how do you make bread?"

It was either that, or a loaf of Wonder Bread.  

I've never been a white bread girl - I've loved my whole grains and certainly have a love for food.  But that moment in the grocery store took my cooking to a whole other level.  I had to rely on what I learned from my mom and start figuring out how to cook on my own.  

When I had success with a recipe, I'd call my mom to tell her all about it.  After a few weeks of calling her to see if she'd actually tried the recipe I had sent to her, she confessed that she needed to see a picture of the finished recipe before she would try it.  

Turns out, she's not the only one who likes seeing photos of what they are aspiring to make.

I decided to start Finding Joy in My Kitchen during our first year of marriage -- just for my mom.  I began posting recipes we tried, complete with step-by-step photos of the food.  And, you know what?  She started making some of our recipes.  And you did too!

Finding Joy in My Kitchen started as as a place to document our cooking journey; now, it's a ministry to you.  God has taught us much about using the food resources He's given to us to make wise and healthy food choices, and we've found that eating well and cooking from scratch is fun and enjoyable!  

It is our hope that as you browse and try these recipes that you too will find joy in cooking food for your family too!