Welcome To A Cents For Cookery.
I am, Amber, a mother of two young adults, and I have always loved working with food in one form or another. In fact, I started my kitchen life when I was a toddler watching my mother work. I never realized I would grow up in a world where sharing great food ideas with others would be possible.
I started my young life in an unconventional, off-grid (before that was a thing) home. We had no electricity or running water, so I learned to cook on our old woodstove. It was an adventure in the kitchen trying to read recipes; my mother believed it was easier to learn by doing than by instruction, so long as we cleaned up after ourselves. And while I often found myself sitting on the counter watching my mom cook and preserve food, baking was new to me as she wasn’t a big baker by nature.
In fact, my first attempt at a cake with my sister was a dismal failure because we had no clue what shortening was. We just omitted it altogether. We also had no idea how to make icing. So what was to be a lovely surprise for our parents working in the bush was a severely lopsided cake with runny green icing. They loved it, of course.
I entered my first baking competition at the country fair at seven with a white layer cake and won! So excited was I that I continued to bake over the years and to hone my cooking skills. I got married and had two children who are now young adults, one still in school and the other living at home. Wow, how time flies. But that meant many years of dealing with fussy eating and navigating food likes and dislikes. Answering that age-old question almost daily ‘what’s for dinner?”
Just when I thought they were old enough to deal with that answer themselves, I found myself in a new relationship after my divorce, and now he asks daily, “What’s for dinner?” Seems like the main chief cook and bottle washer can never get away from that question, so I found myself gleaning from old cookbooks. Finding new and exciting ways to reinvent those recipes and use up leftovers, as I don’t like food waste. Pinching pennies at times and getting creative in the kitchen makes for innovative and delicious meals.
Let me set the scene for you today. In a modern-day small kitchen where my kitchen table has become the hub of food prep, my stove is overworked daily to make breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. The sink is ever full of dishes from food creation and meals. I work daily on innovative food ideas to keep life interesting.
“We know you don’t have time to spend all day making meals. We want to help you feed your family real food now!”
The exciting thing about food is that we now have a world of knowledge available to us thanks to this handy dandy internet. Follow along for food adventures and find real food for people with busy lives.
We don’t always have time to stand in the kitchen for hours on end, so finding it easier to prepare and cook meals that excite the palette is essential. So please stick around and subscribe to our newsletter to stay current.
What Will You Find On A Cents For Cookery?
Loads of muffins! My gawd, we have a muffin obsession. I get tired of making the same old same old, so try to find new and exciting ways to bring you muffin flavors that are both fluffy and tasty.
Baking was and continues to be my first love. You will find lots of sweet treats to satisfy your sweet tooth.
Vintage-inspired cooking. Our grannies, well, your grannies, mine couldn’t cook to save her life, were brilliant. They knew what food scarcity was, and old cookbooks were filled with sage cookery knowledge. They are founts of information that modern-day cooks can still make use of.
Leftover ideas. I hate food waste. It costs money, which is getting harder and harder to stretch. Over the past couple of years, inflation has sent food prices here in Canada to almost triple what they were. So making use of every last grocery item is essential. If we have leftovers, I either send them in to double as a lunch or reinvent them. You can find some great reinventions here.
Budget-friendly cooking because rocketing food prices mean, we all can’t afford chocolate chips every day. Finding new ways to cook on a dime is an essential skill for everyone to learn. With two young adults still at home, it’s one I am currently trying to instill in them before they fly the nest.
Canadian content for those seeking new brands to work with and where to source those products. As well as ideas for substitutions in each and every recipe because who wants to start something to find out one ingredient is missing or can’t be found.