I learned to love cooking and the ‘art of the meal’ while hanging out at my Aunt Joan’s kitchen table. (Usually trying very hard to be good, but not always succeeding!)

There would be the warm sweet buttery aroma of just baked Toll House cookies, so perfectly soft in the center. Often times it was coupled with the savory aroma of Sunday dinner in the oven.

The clothes dryer was also usually running (in a little closet in the kitchen) and it perfumed the air with a quiet “tick tack, tick tack” tumbling sound and the flowery scent of clean laundry.  It was a veritable sensory overload.

And we all knew something good was about to happen…

People would be laughing, cocktails and “Shirley Temples” would be served, whatever was in the oven would be carved for the table, and then of course, the cookies were waiting for us.

Years and years have gone by, but the memory of my Aunt Joan’s kitchen remains… and the many memories made in my Mom’s kitchen too, and my Grandmother’s kitchen and so on…

And now, it’s new memories created by the next generation of great cooks and mad kitchen scientists in our family.

The tradition has happily continued. Food coupled with life has been the centerpiece of a masterpiece… our American family.

This site is a collection of recipes, crafts, prose and photos where we can share together the things that warm our tummies… and our hearts.