BLOGS

Our Wednesday’s Woman for June 12th are three women doing incredible things in their communities.

Chef Kirsten: Here is some information about me, about my 100 pound weight loss and honestly,  just an opportunity for me to brag about my beautiful kids, family, friends and blessed life. I love food…everything about food. Planning menu’s, shopping for food and kitchen wares, reading about food, developing recipes, cooking and eating! I believe food is a gift, we should enjoy it! Making other people happy with the food I cook makes me happy. I grew up in a family that loves food also. My dad makes homemade pepperoni, sausage and jerky and did catering when I was younger. He was always making his pepperoni on the weekends or canning the vegetables he grew in his great little garden. The weekends he wasn’t cooking we were usually traveling around to ethnic stores in the Seattle area and trying new foods. We usually picked up at least one new and unusual food to try. My dad cooked dinner from time to time also, his food was always a product of throwing this or that into the pan and seeing what came out…it was always delicious, sometimes we didn’t have any idea what it was, but it was good! My mom was a good cook too, she did the majority of the cooking in the house, some of my favorites from her are her fried chicken, homemade pasta with Alfredo sauce and spaghetti with meat sauce.  I thank my parents for always having a healthy dinner on the table and exposing us to new food cultures. We spent many weekends on the coast catching our own crabs and digging for clams. For so many people, these kinds of foods are a luxury…for the price of a license we caught our limits and feasted until we couldn’t eat another bite! It was glorious, these are some of the fondest memories of my childhood. We were taught to eat what was put in front of you, if you didn’t you weren’t going to eat. I appreciate that and I try to do the same for my children, I don’t allow them to be picky eaters, they have to try everything. We were not health conscious though, my dad grew up on a farm and dieting was not something that anyone ever did, you just eat! My mom was naturally very thin and didn’t have to worry about portion sizes. We had processed foods around a lot, things like chips and cookies, bagels. I was not blessed with my mother’s high metabolism though, and I stayed chubby through school. (read more)