This is not an ordinary cookbook. As a little girl I learned to cook from the foods that were in our kitchen and our garden. I learned to use a recipe, to do fractions and to create dishes for a variety of occasions. Most of all, I learned that healthy things don't come in a box. The healthiest come directly from the garden. Over the many years now that I have been cooking and baking for myself, I have learned to make many things from scratch and learned to do without things that come in packages. Having many sensitivities to food, I began a long journey of not only eating healthy foods, but creating them myself from research, and trial and error. I'm not the only one with sensitivities in our family though, and I feel that it is incredibly important to meet everyone's needs when cooking a family meal rather than making multiple items. In doing so I have created recipes that cater to dairy free, vegan, refined sugar free, gluten free, garlic and leek free, the Paleo Diet, as well as peanut and soy free foods. Having created a large collection of recipes before catering to these sensitivities, I have striven to not only make recipes that avoid these foods, but also make them so that they taste just like the original recipes-- and sometimes I got lucky and they taste better! With all of that in mind, I have included not only recipes for food, but recipes for other household products that we use, a few tips here and there and even some pictures and comments to encourage your desire to create.
About the Author: On my shelves I have hundreds of books ranging from fiction to cooking and nonfiction to children's books, and even some handmade ones. Books have always been a very important part of my life, but I am not a writer by trade or education. I have done some copy editing and tutored others to write well, but by trade and education I am a teacher. As teaching is my passion, I have learned to explain things in a detail that is less confusing, rather simplistic for the young reader, while still being interesting to read for the adult counterpart. At home I love to garden and make crafts--sewing, knitting, crocheting, drawing-- I also bake and cook everything from scratch. I love to experiment with new recipes, take time to research techniques and chemistry to improve or write a new one and share the end products (and some along the way) with my family. While not at home, I teach young children during the week and tutor on the weekends.