My Backstory: how my childhood impacted my cooking habits
I grew up an only child of a single mother. My mom was a successful executive in a male-dominated corporate world, and she did everything she could to make our lives better; often that meant working late or traveling out of town overnight. She is a great cook, but I didn’t get to eat many of her homemade meals until I was in high school when her schedule relaxed a bit to give her time to cook, and frankly, my tastebuds matured enough to appreciate her cooking – sauerkraut is difficult for 8-year-olds.
Sauerkraut based meals are not always a winner with kids.
Because she worked 45 minutes away from our house, she left early, worked lots of hours, and returned home late. Unless it could be cooked in a crock pot or heated up quickly, we were buying dinner out most nights. As a single parent, she had to wear many hats to keep things rolling at home, which strained her schedule and yet she was successful in the juggling act.
I’ve always loved to cook and garden and do home-based crafts (I’m a die-hard Martha Stewart fan here!) so when it was my turn to be the matriarch, I was excited but torn. I also had a high-stress, long hour job that kept me away from the house for long days. In order to serve homemade meals, I started cooking in batches on Sundays, but my family didn’t like leftovers very much so that only worked for my meals. I ended up cooking a week's worth of meals for me ahead of time and then throwing dinner together for the boys nightly. Not very satisfying, but everyone ate it.
Batch cooking on the weekends can be a lifesaver; if your family likes leftovers.
Lots of things have changed over the years and now I cook for my family as much as I can; well, that is the goal, at least. We just spent 8 months in a rental house without my cooking tools and gadgets. That was a hurdle I dealt with in order to cook healthy homemade meals for my family. During the stint in the rental home, I started looking for a place to call home back in Pittsburgh. We were looking to move back closer to friends and family and that entailed a lot of road trips between Bloomington and Pittsburgh during the summer of 2025. In the fall, I found the perfect house, and I couldn’t wait to move into our new house back to Pittsburgh, so we can actually have a home again and eat good food.
We moved into the house mid-renovation and are anticipating a full kitchen just before Christmas! I truly can’t wait. I have plans for cooking on Christmas Day that includes chateaubriand and homemade bread. I also look forward to cooking full meals regularly once the kitchen renovations are done!
Pittsburgh is my beautiful a.dopted hometown
But even with a dream kitchen, there’s still the weekly challenge of shopping smarter. Since I’m back in my adopted hometown of Pittsburgh, I’m ready to start making my shopping list every week with Smopper to catch the best prices and make sure items are available before I arrive at the store. Using Smopper is a great way to take control of my family’s finances and still find the unique items my family loves so I can cook them the food that nourishes them.