I posted tonight about buying two new cookbooks...and it got me to thinking about cooking, family and traditions...with the holiday's right around the corner, those things are front and center on my list right now:)
I posted this on my personal wall that it didn't take much to make me happy...a night at home with my kids (we are going to watch Soul Surfer as soon as I get through with this) and two new cookbooks....
I LOVE cookbooks...I especially love the ones with stories in them about how the dish came about...who cooked it, and when they cooked it...I love the ones with pictures...Pioneer Woman has one of the best cookbooks I have ever had...it not only has delicious dishes...she takes all her own pictures and it shows step by step how to prepare them...what they should be looking like every step of the way, and she tells such great stories in them, and has pictures of her family in it...a great cookbook if you are a cookbook lover like me. Of course Paula Deen is still my favorite:) Her cooking is so much my style:)
One thing I started doing several years back is making notes in my cookbooks...If I cook a dish for a birthday dinner (a tradition in our family...everyone gets their choice of birthday dinner, whether it be restaurant or favorite dish prepared at home) I write next to the recipe, when I made it...if the kids liked it or not...changes I made to it...things I should change next time....I do this for me as a reference, but I also do it with the hopes that my kids will be as sentimental as me some day:) As my oldest gets older, I definitely see it happening to her:) I hope that one day when I am too old to be the one doing all the cooking and as my girls (and hopefully son) start going through my cookbooks finding recipes mom used to make for them, they will see my notes and they will mean something to them...and bring back memories of Christmas or a birthday party...those notes in my cookbooks are like a journal to the special meals I have made over the years...and if my kids turn out anything like me...those cookbooks with my notes in them will someday be something they treasure when I am no longer here...something maybe my grandkids will too:)
Showing posts with label family meals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family meals. Show all posts
Friday, November 4, 2011
Saturday, May 14, 2011
What a difference a year makes!
Today I was talking to a friend about all the changes we have been through in a year here. There really have been so many changes!
When I found this little house last year there was still snow on the ground. This was such a nice "quaint" little place that had lots of character (I felt) I called Tammy Ghent (she and her husband Steve are the owners) I lease it from them. One of the first questions I asked her was if it had a big kitchen....she said YES...we met, looked at it, and immediately I could envision what it could be. Out of all the places I looked at, this one had everything I needed at a price I felt was reasonable. It had a large kitchen, (to fit commercial appliances we would move in) it had room to grow...(which I plan to do, Lord willing)...it had a room my kids could use to "hang out" in...and it felt like "home" which is what I wanted to create for our customers.
I told Tammy and Steve I wanted it and they got busy right away fixing it up and getting it ready...I got busy right away trying to find equipment to put in my kitchen. Doing this on a budget with no loans was no easy task! Every month we would buy one or two pieces of equipment, after spending thousands of dollars trying to get my kitchen ready, the kitchen store we were buying equipment from told us someone else in Searcy was buying equipment from them to do the same thing I was doing. MY HEART SANK! This was an idea that had been in me for about 6 years, and to finally be doing it, thinking no one else in our town had ever done it...and then find out at the exact time I was...someone else was doing it too. If I hadn't already invested so much and signed a year lease...I probably would of changed my mind and given up. Thankfully I didn't!
The first day I started cooking there I truly had no clue how to cook for LARGE crowds...I didn't even turn on the open sign for over a week...I decided if people walked in and it wasn't just perfect till we got the hang of it...if the open sign wasn't on...maybe they would be forgiving. I hoped they would understand we were doing a "practice run"...and they did. I did pretty much everything by myself except for a little help from friends and my children. It was nothing for a customer to walk in and I would be back in the kitchen cooking, and I would turn the stove off and go run the cash register...then go back to the stove. I did that for 2 months. Sometimes packing the kids up at night with pillows and blankets because I had so many orders that I knew had to be filled and I was the only one to cook...and I would literally cook almost all night...get a little nap, get up, change clothes and customers would come in and never know it! It was the hardest couple months work of my life!
People would say I needed to hire someone to help, and I did...but I knew I had to have enough customers to pay to hire someone. I had no business loans to start this...no huge savings...I was a single mom...so I did all I could do to make what customers I was getting happy...and hope I kept them....and I have kept so many of them! I finally got to hire someone, and she was a wonderful worker and helped me more than she knows. I finally felt like I could breathe a little...I swear 2 months went by that I don't know if I shaved my legs or not....lol I have had a couple people help me on and off..and each of them have taught me something and there will always be a little part of them in the dishes we prepare here. There is Kelly's cream cheese corn (which she called everyones favorite corn) there is Crystals Butterfinge'r pies (yep, she is the one who brought this one to The Mixing Bowl!) There is Nicki's Texas Sheet cake and her delicious sausage balls! And I am lucky enough to be having one of my best friends from high school help me some and she is a cooking diva! Misty brought the Heavenly Chocolate Mousse to us, as well as lot's of other great ideas. These girls have helped me more than they know...not everyone of them is still around...but I will remember and appreciate all they have done to help me get started.
We TRY our hardest...we cook for you all like we cook for our families....and we really do cook with lot's of love....we know food allergies, we know who likes what (if you become a regular) we really have grown attached to quite a lot of our customers...and if for some reason we don't see you for a while...we are kind of like old mother hens wondering about you!
I have never had a job that I loved like I love this. I have always heard if you do what you love you will never work a day in your life...I am not saying I don't feel like I am working, because sometimes after a really hard day my back hurts so bad I don't think I can stand up straight...lol but if I have to work...(since money is not just falling off trees:) this is the best job that I could ever ask for! I love it! I love the girls who help me! I love our customers!
I hope The Mixing Bowl continues to grow and be blessed the way we have this year...I hope this is the job I retire from. Thank you all for helping us to make it our first year! I promise that I will always try to provide you all with the best service and food possible and a fair price. You all have truly enriched my life and I am so very thankful for you.
Cindy
When I found this little house last year there was still snow on the ground. This was such a nice "quaint" little place that had lots of character (I felt) I called Tammy Ghent (she and her husband Steve are the owners) I lease it from them. One of the first questions I asked her was if it had a big kitchen....she said YES...we met, looked at it, and immediately I could envision what it could be. Out of all the places I looked at, this one had everything I needed at a price I felt was reasonable. It had a large kitchen, (to fit commercial appliances we would move in) it had room to grow...(which I plan to do, Lord willing)...it had a room my kids could use to "hang out" in...and it felt like "home" which is what I wanted to create for our customers.
I told Tammy and Steve I wanted it and they got busy right away fixing it up and getting it ready...I got busy right away trying to find equipment to put in my kitchen. Doing this on a budget with no loans was no easy task! Every month we would buy one or two pieces of equipment, after spending thousands of dollars trying to get my kitchen ready, the kitchen store we were buying equipment from told us someone else in Searcy was buying equipment from them to do the same thing I was doing. MY HEART SANK! This was an idea that had been in me for about 6 years, and to finally be doing it, thinking no one else in our town had ever done it...and then find out at the exact time I was...someone else was doing it too. If I hadn't already invested so much and signed a year lease...I probably would of changed my mind and given up. Thankfully I didn't!
The first day I started cooking there I truly had no clue how to cook for LARGE crowds...I didn't even turn on the open sign for over a week...I decided if people walked in and it wasn't just perfect till we got the hang of it...if the open sign wasn't on...maybe they would be forgiving. I hoped they would understand we were doing a "practice run"...and they did. I did pretty much everything by myself except for a little help from friends and my children. It was nothing for a customer to walk in and I would be back in the kitchen cooking, and I would turn the stove off and go run the cash register...then go back to the stove. I did that for 2 months. Sometimes packing the kids up at night with pillows and blankets because I had so many orders that I knew had to be filled and I was the only one to cook...and I would literally cook almost all night...get a little nap, get up, change clothes and customers would come in and never know it! It was the hardest couple months work of my life!
People would say I needed to hire someone to help, and I did...but I knew I had to have enough customers to pay to hire someone. I had no business loans to start this...no huge savings...I was a single mom...so I did all I could do to make what customers I was getting happy...and hope I kept them....and I have kept so many of them! I finally got to hire someone, and she was a wonderful worker and helped me more than she knows. I finally felt like I could breathe a little...I swear 2 months went by that I don't know if I shaved my legs or not....lol I have had a couple people help me on and off..and each of them have taught me something and there will always be a little part of them in the dishes we prepare here. There is Kelly's cream cheese corn (which she called everyones favorite corn) there is Crystals Butterfinge'r pies (yep, she is the one who brought this one to The Mixing Bowl!) There is Nicki's Texas Sheet cake and her delicious sausage balls! And I am lucky enough to be having one of my best friends from high school help me some and she is a cooking diva! Misty brought the Heavenly Chocolate Mousse to us, as well as lot's of other great ideas. These girls have helped me more than they know...not everyone of them is still around...but I will remember and appreciate all they have done to help me get started.
We TRY our hardest...we cook for you all like we cook for our families....and we really do cook with lot's of love....we know food allergies, we know who likes what (if you become a regular) we really have grown attached to quite a lot of our customers...and if for some reason we don't see you for a while...we are kind of like old mother hens wondering about you!
I have never had a job that I loved like I love this. I have always heard if you do what you love you will never work a day in your life...I am not saying I don't feel like I am working, because sometimes after a really hard day my back hurts so bad I don't think I can stand up straight...lol but if I have to work...(since money is not just falling off trees:) this is the best job that I could ever ask for! I love it! I love the girls who help me! I love our customers!
I hope The Mixing Bowl continues to grow and be blessed the way we have this year...I hope this is the job I retire from. Thank you all for helping us to make it our first year! I promise that I will always try to provide you all with the best service and food possible and a fair price. You all have truly enriched my life and I am so very thankful for you.
Cindy
Sunday, March 6, 2011
What makes a home?
What makes a home? That is a question I have pondered on this week. While talking to some customers who have become friends this week I was talking about "home" and then it got me to thinking...what really makes a home?
When I first moved into my house a couple years ago, I remember looking around and thinking I didn't know if I could ever feel like I was "home" here. It was almost 1000 square feet smaller than the home I had built with my now x-husband. At the time we built our home...I thought that would be the place I would be forever...that I would raise my children, that I would have my grandchildren come visit....that was my home!
When my husband and I divorced a few years ago, (which honestly has been very hard for me to admit to people and hard to talk about...we have 4 children and there is a lot of guilt for me that goes along with the feeling like we let them down.) But I was the one to move out of our "home"...we had built our house right next door to his parents and on his family land...I think moving from our home...and moving our kids from our home was the hardest and most heartbreaking feeling I have ever been through.
At first when we moved here, there was excitement from the kids to be in a new neighborhood in town with lot's of friends to hang out with.. But it didn't take long to start missing their old "home"...we went from 4 bathrooms to 2.5, 5 bedrooms to 4, and a whole life of memories. It took me forever to quit calling my old house my home....I would catch myself saying "home" when I referred to their dads house for months. Our house was nice...but it wasn't home...not yet. After about 9 months of being here, bringing in this and that, hanging pictures, cooking meals, playing games, making memories here, new memories...this became "home"...I have actually noticed my kids calling our house "home" and our old house "dad's house"... (they call it that way to him too) My kids love their dad, and he and I are still good friends...but his house doesn't have that "home" feeling any longer. Even my X-husband comes to our house a few times a week just to spend time with the kids...I don't mind. I want him involved with them as much as possible. But they would rather he do that than go out to the "old" house all the time.
So as I was talking to my friends the other day...It got me to thinking, Is home where mom is? Is home where there are candles burning and making the house smell sweet, is home where there is something good cooking in the oven? Is home just a feeling? Is it more a feeling than an actual place? I think so. I want everyone who comes to my house to feel welcomed...and I guess why I am writing this on The Mixing Bowl Blog is that that is an extension of my home....My family and I spend so many hours there that it feels like our home also:) I want it to always feel warm and inviting and hope when you are there you feel that feeling.
When I first moved into my house a couple years ago, I remember looking around and thinking I didn't know if I could ever feel like I was "home" here. It was almost 1000 square feet smaller than the home I had built with my now x-husband. At the time we built our home...I thought that would be the place I would be forever...that I would raise my children, that I would have my grandchildren come visit....that was my home!
When my husband and I divorced a few years ago, (which honestly has been very hard for me to admit to people and hard to talk about...we have 4 children and there is a lot of guilt for me that goes along with the feeling like we let them down.) But I was the one to move out of our "home"...we had built our house right next door to his parents and on his family land...I think moving from our home...and moving our kids from our home was the hardest and most heartbreaking feeling I have ever been through.
At first when we moved here, there was excitement from the kids to be in a new neighborhood in town with lot's of friends to hang out with.. But it didn't take long to start missing their old "home"...we went from 4 bathrooms to 2.5, 5 bedrooms to 4, and a whole life of memories. It took me forever to quit calling my old house my home....I would catch myself saying "home" when I referred to their dads house for months. Our house was nice...but it wasn't home...not yet. After about 9 months of being here, bringing in this and that, hanging pictures, cooking meals, playing games, making memories here, new memories...this became "home"...I have actually noticed my kids calling our house "home" and our old house "dad's house"... (they call it that way to him too) My kids love their dad, and he and I are still good friends...but his house doesn't have that "home" feeling any longer. Even my X-husband comes to our house a few times a week just to spend time with the kids...I don't mind. I want him involved with them as much as possible. But they would rather he do that than go out to the "old" house all the time.
So as I was talking to my friends the other day...It got me to thinking, Is home where mom is? Is home where there are candles burning and making the house smell sweet, is home where there is something good cooking in the oven? Is home just a feeling? Is it more a feeling than an actual place? I think so. I want everyone who comes to my house to feel welcomed...and I guess why I am writing this on The Mixing Bowl Blog is that that is an extension of my home....My family and I spend so many hours there that it feels like our home also:) I want it to always feel warm and inviting and hope when you are there you feel that feeling.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
From there to here....
Well, I have decided to try my hand at this whole "blogging" thing. It is something I have wanted to do for a while, but wasn't sure what to do. Still am not, But with the help of Nicki (my sweet little red-headed helper at The Mixing Bowl) I am at least this far.:)
I want you all to get to know us...as more than just a place that you come to buy good food...but get to know us. Many of you do, many of you have went from strangers in this past nine months, to being very near and dear to me. I want this to be a place I share stories about that. About what you all mean to me...to the girls who work with me...to my family. Of course, I want to throw in some good recipes here and there, and funny stories...but every week we have something that touches our heart happen at our store.
When I started on this adventure last year, (opening the Mixing Bowl) I had no idea what this would really entail...I had visions of me leisurely preparing delicious meals, and making everything taste and look beautiful...all by myself...ha! After about 8 weeks of no sleep cranking out more meals than I could count praying that this would work....I realized any "leisurely" thought I had was completely absurd! I would literally come home some nights at midnight or after, climb in bed smelling like whatever I had cooked for the day...get up a few hours later...hop in the shower and start it all over again. I would dream of chopping and cooking....I guess I was ate up with it!
But, I couldn't go on like that forever...and finally felt like we were getting established enough for me to hire someone...so I did...and from there...we have just been growing. I am so thankful for the girls who help me. I may be the one telling them what to cook and trying to make sure everything is to my tasting...but without them, we wouldn't be growing like we are....They are the peelers, the choppers, the pudding mixers...etc and I for one minute don't forget that!
We also couldn't do this without YOU...our customers...You have no idea how much I appreciate you all. I know without you, I would not be able to do what I truly feel I was meant to do. I love cooking. I love creating. I love family. I love friends! This is so much more to me than making a meal for you...I have gotten to be part of some seriously special occasion meals and it has truly touched my heart. Retirements, anniversaries, baptisms, birthdays, your family holidays...then to hear the stories from you afterwards and to really feel a bond with you all...That's what this is all about for me...that's what this has turned into.
So, that's what I want to do here...share those stories...and oh...I have so many already. This journey has been therapeutic for me. After being married for 18 years, and having 4 children...then going through a divorce and wondering what life held for me...how would I survive? Where was my identity? The things I did the best in life were nurture and take care of others...that was my "element" (I have been told:) This was a dream of mineI had had for a long time,but in my marraige, it probably would of never happened. So as sad as a divorce was, (and it didn't happen because of this dream!) I turned that into an opportunity for growth.
I have gotten more out of this experience in doing this than I might of gotten sitting in the best counselors chair. Until you do what YOU love, until you take RESPONSIBILITY for YOU, until you HELP others in doing it....I don't know if you can truly be happy. I have days where I wonder and worry and think "what have I gotten myself into"...but even on my hardest days...it is better than before I started this. I love what I do. I hope you do too...and never forget how thankful I am for the opportunity to do it!
I want you all to get to know us...as more than just a place that you come to buy good food...but get to know us. Many of you do, many of you have went from strangers in this past nine months, to being very near and dear to me. I want this to be a place I share stories about that. About what you all mean to me...to the girls who work with me...to my family. Of course, I want to throw in some good recipes here and there, and funny stories...but every week we have something that touches our heart happen at our store.
When I started on this adventure last year, (opening the Mixing Bowl) I had no idea what this would really entail...I had visions of me leisurely preparing delicious meals, and making everything taste and look beautiful...all by myself...ha! After about 8 weeks of no sleep cranking out more meals than I could count praying that this would work....I realized any "leisurely" thought I had was completely absurd! I would literally come home some nights at midnight or after, climb in bed smelling like whatever I had cooked for the day...get up a few hours later...hop in the shower and start it all over again. I would dream of chopping and cooking....I guess I was ate up with it!
But, I couldn't go on like that forever...and finally felt like we were getting established enough for me to hire someone...so I did...and from there...we have just been growing. I am so thankful for the girls who help me. I may be the one telling them what to cook and trying to make sure everything is to my tasting...but without them, we wouldn't be growing like we are....They are the peelers, the choppers, the pudding mixers...etc and I for one minute don't forget that!
We also couldn't do this without YOU...our customers...You have no idea how much I appreciate you all. I know without you, I would not be able to do what I truly feel I was meant to do. I love cooking. I love creating. I love family. I love friends! This is so much more to me than making a meal for you...I have gotten to be part of some seriously special occasion meals and it has truly touched my heart. Retirements, anniversaries, baptisms, birthdays, your family holidays...then to hear the stories from you afterwards and to really feel a bond with you all...That's what this is all about for me...that's what this has turned into.
So, that's what I want to do here...share those stories...and oh...I have so many already. This journey has been therapeutic for me. After being married for 18 years, and having 4 children...then going through a divorce and wondering what life held for me...how would I survive? Where was my identity? The things I did the best in life were nurture and take care of others...that was my "element" (I have been told:) This was a dream of mineI had had for a long time,but in my marraige, it probably would of never happened. So as sad as a divorce was, (and it didn't happen because of this dream!) I turned that into an opportunity for growth.
I have gotten more out of this experience in doing this than I might of gotten sitting in the best counselors chair. Until you do what YOU love, until you take RESPONSIBILITY for YOU, until you HELP others in doing it....I don't know if you can truly be happy. I have days where I wonder and worry and think "what have I gotten myself into"...but even on my hardest days...it is better than before I started this. I love what I do. I hope you do too...and never forget how thankful I am for the opportunity to do it!
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