I am an old Southern Woman, cooking and baking have been a part of my life since childhood. As a little girl, I sat on a stool in the kitchens of my mom, and my grandmother’s as they cooked and created the dishes and treats of my family. Learning family cooking secrets and special dishes and treats.

I can remember being told, Cooking is an art, you add and create, making things what you want them to be, to be yours. My mom was a great cook, and even once did catering for a while. We were always trying new recipes from Southern Living magazine, the hoard of cookbooks she had, and from the newspaper. Once we found a new recipe for yellow squash casserole,  we gathered the ingredients and made it, smelled good baking. At dinner, when we all sat down to eat and tasted it, we all were swallowing hard and making faces. It is one of the awful establishments things we ever made… never again!!! Its also about the dishes I can remember being bad, a fail.

As for baking. My Ma Reeves was a baker, she always had a cabinet in her kitchen that held two cakes, a pound cake, and a layer cake whose floors varied between, chocolate,  coconut, and caramel. She also made biscuits every morning at 4 am for my grandfather’s breakfast. The first pound cake I ever made on my own reminded me that baking is a science, directions and measurements matter, opening and closing the oven door willy nilly matter too, it looked beautiful one minute and deflated into a flat mess in another… to be honest, it was still good, we made a trifle put of it, and learned an unforgettable lesson too….

I grew up in the time where jello rings were filled with unimaginable things suspended in them, biscuits were made by hand, my first try were like rocks… but food, the cooking, and baking were traditional and taught in kitchens where kids were aproned up and sat at tables and on counter stools to be included… a magical time and wonderful memory for me, which I have shared and journey through with my kids, and grandkids.

So remember the epic fails, for they are the stuff memories are made of… flat cakes, hard biscuits, and spice combinations that can taste like nothing you should EVER taste… It’s all yet another piece of life’s tapestry to treasure!