Oh, 2020! What a year you were.
We started 2020 with lots of music and travel, and then Covid-19 shut it all down. It was incredibly surreal to go from full speed ahead to a standstill in the blink of an eye. After the initial shock of it all, I started looking at what I could do to learn something new and be productive.
Yes, I dug into making new arrangements and we turned our home into a recording studio. We’ll be sharing the music with you later this year.
I also started thinking about another project that has been sitting on the “back burner” for the past few years: a cookbook.
I’ve always enjoyed sharing good food with people I care about:
- In high school, our choir made a cookbook (“Bear Tracks”) as a fundraiser for our trip to Vienna, Austria. I submitted a few recipes for that publication. The book lives at my parents’ house in Montana.
- At some point after college, I made a very small cookbook for my younger brothers: “My Sister’s Favorite Recipes” (Created to impress, swoon, and feed folks with guaranteed success every time!!!!!!). At ten pages, it had just enough to get my brothers started if they wanted to make something for a potential girlfriend.
- While teaching at Central Washington University (2000-2002), I had regular challenges for the various sections of the band. The section that won a particular challenge got to have dinner at my place. There were more than a couple of guys that would wander by my office for “that recipe” for something they enjoyed on one of our Sunday night dinners.
With the move to Denmark, I had the opportunity to be exposed to all kinds of new foods (for me) and build wonderful friendships with people who are just as excited about food as we are. I also married into a family with two amazing teenagers who love good food. As the years have passed, Morten and I have been tag team partners in the kitchen and the kids have been open eaters and kind critics. As we curated recipes from all corners of the internet and our own experiences, the kids were a central part of building our repertoire of recipes. About five years ago, I thought it would be a good idea to start assembling the recipes into a collection that we could gift to them when they moved out. Laura has been out for two years now and Victor moved out in February. We started getting text messages asking for “that salad dressing Kristin makes” or “how Dad makes…”.
When Covid hit Denmark, it was my time to get to finish the book. We did a LOT of cooking, took what feels like a million pictures, and assembled this collection. It wasn’t my initial intention to make this book something that would reach beyond our familial circle, but we’ve had friends look through the book and ask for a copy.
This book is full of recipes to help you “feed your people” (as my friend Shauna says) with love and joy. Join us in the kitchen.
