Shaina Olmanson, known to us here at Tasty Kitchen as foodformyfamily, is mother of four who knows a thing or two (or twelve) about cooking from scratch. Growing up very close to both sides of grandparents, she has many fond memories of watching her Yugoslavian-born grandmother work her magic in the kitchen. Her first foray into cooking was at the age of 6, when she used her mom’s cookbook to bake her first cake from scratch, and she hasn’t stopped cooking since.

Shaina is a freelance writer, editor and photographer. She is also an accomplished violinist, having played for 19 years, and she still gives violin lessons. Before starting her own business freelancing from home, she worked for non-profit organizations teaching daily living skills, work instruction, and doing case management with people with disabilities. She says she misses it to this day, which reveals the great generosity in this young woman’s heart. (Which is why it’s no surprise that one of her earlier, popular recipes in her recipe box is a delightful quick bread that she calls Orange Pecan Zucchini Bread for Doorsteps Everywhere.)

Speaking of quick breads, here is another one of her masterpieces: Streusel-Topped Pumpkin Bread. It’s enough to make me wish for pumpkin season to come sooner.

 
 
 
Speaking more about her love for good old-fashioned cooking from scratch, Shaina explains: “With frugal health nuts for parents, we never ate processed food, fast food, and the like. When held up against my grandma’s food, there was never a comparison.” I think that, when held up against her food as well, there isn’t much of a comparison either.

Clockwise from top left: Ahi Tuna Potstickers, Rum-Glazed Roasted Pecans, Creamy Turkey and Wild Rice Soup, Potato Leek Soup, Texas Caviar, Hold the Fish Eggs, and Gruyere and Cheddar Broccoli Soup.

 
 
 
Shaina’s blog, Food for My Family, is packed with recipes, time-saving secrets, budget tips, menu planning, and other valuable resources that any family can use. She has her family’s favorite recipes there too, which include such mouth-watering main course entries as the ones you see below.

Clockwise from top left: Maple-Glazed Steak Salad with Blue Cheese, Lemon Cream Seafood Pasta, Spicy, Sweet and Savory Seared Ahi Tuna, and Smoked BBQ Ribs.

 
 
 
What Shaina enjoys most about cooking is that she gets to feed and teach others, including her children. She loves being able to share what she makes with anyone who will let her. (We’ll let you, Shaina!) Her blog gives her an opportunity to do that in a larger scale, and she confesses that she recently got teary-eyed when a reader commented on her kugelhopf post, thanking her for giving her a piece of her childhood back. You can see the kugelhopf below, along with a few other delectable desserts. They all look so good that I might get teary-eyed myself.

Clockwise from top left: Chocolate Gâteau Alice for Young and Old, Lemon Ricotta Blueberry Bread Pudding, Gingered Orange Shortbread, Cheesecake with Raspberry Sauce, My Grandma’s Brandy Apfelradln, and Kugelhopf, A German Coffee Cake.

 
 
 
There is so much that Shaina has to offer, and we’re happy to introduce her to you. So let’s get right into the interview part and hear even more from foodformyfamily!

 
 
Q: Do you have any favorite chefs or food celebrities? Who inspires you?
A: I have to go back to where my love for cooking started: my grandmother. With everything she’d been through in life, she took great pride in feeding and caring for her family.

 
Q: What are your favorite ingredients?
A: I really like working with vegetables I grow myself. Maybe it’s because I know how much hard work I’ve put in and how many times I’ve sent my kids out to water them, but they don’t compare to anything else I could use in a recipe. It makes me smile every time I can see the progression from seed to plant to fruit to plate.

 
Q: What is your go-to dish or meal?
A: On the savory front, I’d have to go with my Maple-Glazed Steak Salad with Blue Cheese. As far as baking is concerned, there are so many. Any one of my grandma’s recipes would be an obvious choice: kugelhopf, apfelradln, and the cookies. But they are followed closely by quick breads of all sorts: pumpkin streusel, banana chocolate chip, zucchini orange.

 
Q: Is there something that you always make at home and never buy at the store anymore?
A: Stocks and broths. I like having control over what is going into the broth, but what really gets me is making something from what would be kitchen scraps and waste.

 
Q: What gives you the most trouble in the kitchen?
A: Sushi rice. I really want to try to make my own sushi, but I’m intimidated by the rice and haven’t tried. I was excited to find out over Easter that my cousin’s wife just signed up for a sushi-making course. I completely intend on benefitting from that after the fact.

 
Q: What is your favorite kitchen tool?
A: A good pair of stainless tongs. They grab food, turn it over, stir, sauté, grill and more. We use tongs daily in our house, and they’re easy for the kids to use as well.

 
Q: Give us one of your favorite kitchen tips that you wish you’d always known.
A: Cooking is an art. Don’t be afraid to bend the rules and change the ingredients in the recipe. I was so much more satisfied in the kitchen once I allowed myself to do this.

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Thanks for answering our questions, Shaina!

 
Shaina’s recipe box is filled with many great meal ideas and snacks for your family. Her blog, Food for My Family, has a wealth of information, from make-ahead meals, nutrition, going green, menu planning, time-saving tips, and of course, more of her favorite recipes. Her husband Ole mans the grilling section, and even shows you how to make your own smoker. She warmly invites everyone: “Come share our food with us.” It’s an invitation you’ll want to accept.

 
She’s a beautiful lady, inside and out, and we’re so glad she shares her recipes with us in our little cooking community. Let’s meet Shelisa, known to us here at Tasty Kitchen as big2beautiful!

Shelisa comes from a huge family. Her grandmother had 9 children, and she is the 6th of 27 grandchildren. “Of course I was her favorite,” she adds. From the tender age of 6, Shelisa spent her time in her grandmother’s kitchen, snapping peas, picking greens, hulling nuts, learning to roll and cut buttermilk biscuits. With a family full of great cooks (although some, she admits, were more suited for supplying paper goods for family gatherings), it’s easy to see where Shelisa gets her natural instincts in the kitchen.

Shelisa grew up eating and cooking traditional Soul food, and up until her mid-20s, just about the only international dish in her repertoire was spaghetti and meat sauce from a jar. “But give me oxtails, peas and okra, mustard greens, dressing (not stuffing), and I could cook it in my sleep.”

(I’m not even sure I can cook that wide awake.)

Old school or new, soul food rocks. Just take a look at her recipe box.

Clockwise from top left: Sweet and Savory Ribs, Sweet Potato Delight, Green Bean Salad, Southern Fried Chicken, Roasted Brussels Sprouts, and Creamed Spinach.

 
 
 
Shelisa lives in the Tampa bay area with her husband Curtis and three children. Their kids will eat anything, thanks in part to their frequent grocery store “treasure hunt” trips. Even at a very young age, Shelisa would take them exploring around the produce section where they would grab the most unusual fruits and vegetables. “We would go home and learn all about them, where they came from, how long they took to grow, and most importantly, how they taste and how to cook with them.”

Shelisa, too, expanded her food world. Her move away from Tallahassee led to her love affair with authentic Italian food, which she explored with the same passion. Now she says that Italian food is actually her favorite, although we need to keep that a secret from her family. Especially her mom.

It looks like somewhere along the way, she got quite adept at so many other international cuisines as well.

Clockwise from top left: Taiwanese Pork and Noodles (Lo Ba), Japanese Cucumber Salad, Teriyaki Glazed Wings, Spaghetti and Meat Sauce, and Sausage and Peppers.

 
 
 
Shelisa is also a seafood junkie. She loves crab and shrimp. Her go-to dish is Garlic Shrimp Pasta, which has all her favorite ingredients: butter, shrimp, and pasta. Freshly fried fish with hot sauce and mustard on sliced bread is one of her Friday favorites, and from the looks of the grouper sandwich below, it could easily be one of my favorites too.

Clockwise from top left: Grouper Sandwich, Shrimp and Grits, Smoked Salmon Pizza, and Paella.

 
 
 
Shelisa sums it up nicely when she says, “Food is the center of family joy, and even sometimes pain in my family. We celebrate everything from births to farewells with meat and vegetables.”

I know many of us share that sentiment.

Now let’s sit down with Shelisa and get to know this beautiful woman even better. (I always enjoy this part!)

 
 
Q: What do you enjoy most about cooking?
A: The most enjoyable aspect of cooking to me is eating! I love all kinds of food and I am very open to trying anything once. I love taking the ingredients from a recipe handed down by grandmother then finding a recipe from a culture using the same ingredients but with different spices to create something new for my family to enjoy.

My kitchen is the hub of my home like most families. I have learned more about my teenage kids over a big bowl of spaghetti than I would if we sat down to discuss their day in a more formal setting. I’ve always told my husband, I show my emotions in my food. I show love with a pot of collard greens, I may express excitement with Key Lime pie. And if I am pissed, I show him the big drawer next to the refrigerator where we keep the take out pizza menus.

 
Q: Any favorite chefs or food celebrities? Who inspires you?
A: My grandmother by far is the person that inspired me the most. She had 9 kid and got by on 44 dollars a week and loved and nurtured her family. There was never, ever a time that I can remember growing up and not having food to eat (good food at that). She made meals out of nothing. She feed an army of hungry people with little or nothing.

 
Q: Quick: if you had to eat something rig now and had only 3 minutes to get it ready, what would it be?
A: An oven-broiled Peanut Butter and Apple Jelly sandwich. OMG, it’s the best. A thick layer of peanut butter, of course. Slather the peanut butter on one slice of the bread and just a thin layer of jelly on the other slice then place it under a broiler or toaster oven for a couple of minutes. The peanut butter gets all hot and toasty and the jelly melts right into the bread, and when you place them together, I swear I hear a song every time.

 
Q: What gives you the most trouble in the kitchen?
A: Rice! I know it might sound strange but for some reason I couldn’t cook a good pot of rice. Either it would be too sticky and gummy or the outside would be cooked and the inside crunchy. Or the rice would burn on the bottom but still have water bubbling on the top. Now I own a rice cooker. Problem solved.

 
Q: What is your favorite kitchen tool?
A: My garlic peeler and my ceramic chef knife are by far the best things ever created. I use them every single day. My garlic peeler has become the center of some dinners at my home. My friends might walk into the kitchen and ask if there’s anything I need help with and I will hand them some garlic and the peeler, and it keeps them busy. And the result of their efforts is I have garlic already peeled and ready to go for the next day. As for the knife, I took a knife skills class at a local cooking school and the chef suggested I try the ceramic knife. I fell hard for the knife; it was love at first use! I love it so much because it’s lightweight and doesn’t require sharpening but once every few years.

 
Q: Give us one of your favorite kitchen tips that you wish you’d always known.
A: Marinating adds so much flavor to your meat! Even if you only have time to let you meat marinate for 15 minutes, I would say never skip this step. Also, if you ever over salt your vegetables, use sugar to balance out the saltiness. It almost like a magic wand.

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Thank you, Shelisa!

 
Shelisa’s blog, Big2Beautiful, is studded with more of her incredible recipes and mouthwatering photos. There are also lovely snippets of her family life, including her adorable children (yes, I just called teenagers adorable). There’s such a wide variety of deliciousness in there, so be prepared to get hungry!

 
She’s a creative mom of two from Dallas, Texas who owns a design and photography business, is co-founder, designer and editor of a popular photography website, contributes holiday content for Disney, and offers printables in her online shop. She also happens to have grown up in the town where Ree lives now. In fact, she spent Fourth of July this year watching Marlboro Man and his brother blow up the county with fireworks! Let’s all say hello to Amy Locurto, and in case her hearing hasn’t been the same since that pyrotechnic display, let’s say it a little loudly!

Amy was one of our very first members here at Tasty Kitchen. She confesses that she blogs too much and carries her camera wherever she goes, to the annoyance of her family. Amy is the co-founder of I Heart Faces, a fun photography website that has grown into quite a community and resource for thousands of photography enthusiasts. Her graphic design work has given her the opportunity to create content for such big names as Reader’s Digest, Disney, and Blissfully Domestic. Her blog, Living Locurto, is where her whimsical side runs free, and she offers all kinds of cute printables and creative ideas there, including printable weekly meal plans with a grocery list.

Her dishes are not just all about cute, mind you. Look at the great meal ideas waiting to be discovered in her recipe box.

Clockwise from top left: Cheesy Chicken Muffins, Minty Fresh Summer Chicken & Rice, Mini Barbeque Beef Pies, and BBQ Chicken Soft Tacos.

 
 
 
One of her dreams is to go on a Mediterranean cruise, which is easy to understand especially after finding out that her quick meal of choice is hummus, olives, and pita bread, and her favorite food pairing of the moment is feta cheese and kalamata olives. Her go-to meal? Pasta with fresh tomatoes, basil, olive oil and garlic. Yes, I think a Mediterranean cruise seems like the next logical step, and I hope it means we end up getting more incredible light dishes like her Greek Chicken Pasta Salad below.

Clockwise from top left: Easy Avocado Taco Salad, Cilantro Salmon Patties, Corn and Avocado Salad, and Greek Chicken Pasta Salad.

 
 
 
Amy loves her coffee and it’s the one ingredient she needs to always have in her home. She loves to bake and her red KitchenAid mixer is her absolute favorite kitchen tool. Just look at what it helps her make!

Clockwise from top left: Dark Chocolate Cookies, Fresh Blackberry Cake, and The Softest Chocolate Chip Cookies.

 
 
 
Of course, someone as creative as Amy has got to have some really cool party ideas, and her Easy Chocolate Candy Caramel Apples are just one of the many fun party ideas you’ll see in her blog.

 
 
 
Other fun facts about Amy: she used to be a cowgirl and won ribbons in rodeos (ask her who taught her how to ride), she went to high school with Marlboro Man and still thinks he’s great, she was run over by a big station wagon with wood grain panels (twice!), and once received a prank call from Charles Barkley. She admits that she had 4-inch high bangs in the 80s and was on MTV for 30 seconds. (Maybe if we all ask nicely, she’ll show us some photos of that.)

Yes, those and even more strange things really did happen to her! One of them involves fire and a snake, and because snakes make me shudder, I’ll let her tell the story. Take it away, Amy!

 
 
Q: What do you enjoy most about cooking?
A: I enjoy the creativity of making something from scratch, the aromas, and the entertaining that goes along with cooking.  

 
Q: Any favorite chefs or food celebrities?
A: My Great-Grandma Chunkie could make the best pies ever. She was my celebrity chef when I was a kid. Now, I LOVE Italian food and Giada De Laurentiis is a favorite of mine. Also, Curtis Stone is a total hottie. I can’t help but love his dishes.

 
Q: Who inspires you?
A: Bakerella inspires me with her amazing creations. If I met her, I’d be totally giddy. She makes me want to bake all the time. I think I’ve gained at least 10 pounds since discovering her web site last year. Thanks a lot Bakerella!

 
Q: Any strange foods or food combinations that you really enjoy?
A: I just discovered that if you eat an Easter Peep and an M&M at the same time, it’s heaven.

 
Q: Any memorable kitchen disasters you’d like to share?
A: Years ago, I hosted a wedding shower and several out-of-town guests. In preparation for my party, I preheated the oven … not knowing there was a pizza box still in it! Twenty minutes later the house was full of smoke, fire alarms were going off and fire was coming out of the oven! EEK! One of my house guests called 911 while another sprayed a fire extinguisher in my oven, all of this while I about fainted! Luckily the party was outside and my new neighbor let me use her oven because mine was full of cheap fire extinguisher ashes. Nothing else exciting happened until the guests were leaving and discovered a snake on my front porch! That was a party to remember for sure.

 
Q: Is there an ingredient or kitchen technique that gives you grief? Aside from pizza boxes hiding in the oven?
A: Pie crust! I am the worst dough roller, pie crust shaper ever. Grandma Chunkie would be so disappointed if she was still alive.

 
Q: Give us one of your favorite kitchen tips that you wish you’d always known.
A: Get a fancy mixer and your cakes and cookies look and taste WAY better.

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Thanks, Amy! You had my full attention there. Except maybe for the few minutes when I almost bolted out of the room after you mentioned that snake on the porch.

 
Amy has such lovely dishes in her Tasty Kitchen recipe box but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Head to her blog, Living Locurto, for an even fuller view of just how creative this lady is, and if you love photography, you’d do well to check out the wonderful community she’s helped build at I Heart Faces.

 
We’ve got another lovely southern lady to introduce to you and although she hasn’t lived in the South her whole life, she’s a country girl through and through. Let’s all give a warm welcome to Tina, known to us here as Mommy’s Kitchen!

Tina, who has this wonderful blog called Mommy’s Kitchen, lives in Texas with her husband and three children, “I’m a stay-at-home home,” she says, “but consider myself a Domestic Engineer only because it sounds so much more professional.” Although she’s lived in Texas for 20 years, she grew up in different places around the world. Thanks to the Air Force, she was born in France, then moved to California, then lived in Hawaii for quite some time, where she developed a love for Filipino, Korean, and Asian cuisine in general.

Her heritage is quite international, too. Her mother is German and her father was born and raised in Alabama. “My mother learned to prepare all my favorite southern classics from my grandmother,” she explains. Growing up, she was exposed to quite a variety of foods, but she considers herself a country girl with a love for all things southern, especially when it comes to food. “My favorite is southern comfort food and old fashioned classics, dishes that hold a special place in my heart,” she says. “I enjoy canning my own jams, jellies, pickles and fruits. I also still hang my clothes out to dry on the clothes line from time to time. There is just something about the old-fashioned ways that I love so much.”

We’re glad about that too, Tina, because you’ve got some really great southern classics in your recipe box and your blog.

Clockwise from top left: Southern Cream Peas, Southern Style Sun Tea, Southern Pimento Cheese, Skillet Buttermilk Biscuits, Southern Apple Pie, and Southern Hummingbird Cake.

 
 
 
Tina learned to cook from her mother, saying that, “I grew up always under my mother’s feet and I loved being in the kitchen just watching her cook.” She proudly declares that her mom could cook anything. It gives her great pleasure now to have three children who have that same love of cooking as she did when she was a child. “I try my best to get them involved in the kitchen as much as possible,” she says. Her children help in the garden and cook and bake with her in the kitchen. In their family, it’s a big deal to eat together at the table family style, and she enjoys showing her children how food and family can really come together.

Something tells me that with great food like the dishes below, you won’t have to call out “Dinner’s ready!” more than once.

Clockwise from top left: Easy Peasy Chicken Legs, Pig Candy a.k.a. Brown Sugar Bacon, Hoe Down BBQ Chuck Roast, Weekend Company Breakfast Casserole, Homemade Corn Dogs, and Spaghetti Carbonara.

 
 
 
Tina mentioned at the start that baking was also one of her passions, and in fact, when asked what ingredient shortage makes her panic, she unhesitatingly answered, “Butter!” Tina loves cooking and baking with butter, and admits that she tends to freak out a bit if she finds herself running low or without a stick. “To me,” she confesses, “butter is like a bar of gold.”

I’ll send you a few bars of gold if you’ll send me back a couple of these, Tina. Deal?

Clockwise from top left: Dulce de Leche Pumpkin Cheesecake, Fudge Puddles a.k.a. Puddles of Yum, Homemade Oreos, Dulce De Leche Ice Cream with Toasted Pecans, Healthy Peanut Butter Balls, and Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie.

 
 
 
Now of course, since we’re on a southern roll here, you know I’m going to show you some pie. But not without sharing one of Tina’s memorable kitchen disasters first. You see, about 23 years ago, Tina decided to make apple pie from scratch for some friends she was having over. “I thought I was going so well,” she says, “but I guess you learn that you can’t make and bake a pie from scratch in 30 minutes.” So when they sat down at the table and cut into the pie, to her horror, the bottom crust wasn’t cooked. It wasn’t even just half-cooked—it was still raw. When the first slice was lifted, the crust just stretched. And stretched.

Now Tina can make a mean homemade apple pie. Or peanut butter pie. Coconut cream. Strawberry. You name it, I’m pretty sure she can make it. But she does admit that she’s still a little hesitant and worried when she cuts into that first piece. She still gets flashbacks of her first apple pie.

Clockwise from top left: Summertime Strawberry Pie, Diner Style Peanut Butter Custard Pie, Apple Pie Filling in a Jar, and Old Fashioned Coconut Cream Pie, Oh My!.

 
 
 
Wasn’t that a nice story? I know you’d like to hear more, so let’s bring Tina in to answer some questions. In the meantime, I’ll go off to a corner and find myself a slice of pie.

 
 
Q: What do you enjoy most about cooking?
A: First and foremost, I love cooking! Most people view cooking as a chore, but not me. Cooking and baking are my passion so it doesn’t seem like work at all. I also love teaching other people how to cook. I was lucky enough to have a mother show me how to cook, so I want to do the same for others who were not as fortunate as I was. I never realized the impact my site had on other people. Well, that is until I received an email one day. It was a random email, sort of out of the blue. I get all teary-eyed still to this day every time I tell the story. It was from a young lady that made one of my recipes—a simple recipe but not simple to her. You see, this particular young lady has a learning disability and she is unable to read.



She says she can read bits and pieces but not much. She was sending me an email to thank me for including step-by-step photos with my recipes. She told me that she cooked a dish from scratch for her husband for the first time since they have been married. She kept thanking me and told me without the photos she could not have done it. She said by looking at all the ingredients in the picture and then following along with the step-by-step photos she was able to understand how to make that particular dish. She was so excited and her excitement got me excited and then I cried. It was at that moment that I knew what I was doing was all worth it. Just the satisfaction of knowing I had helped just one person cook for the very first time. Goodness, I still get goose bumps every time I think of her. This is why I blog, she is why I blog.   

 
Q: Who inspires you?
A: Well, I would have to say my elders. What I mean by that is that I just love sitting and listening to older folks speak of cooking for their families long ago. The stories of how they hardly had any food or ingredients but yet they could turn out a full course meal on the table. Biscuits with homemade pan gravy, cream peas with bacon, a fruit pie and a cheap cut of meat that was transformed into something that would melt in your mouth. Those are the folks that inspire me. Just take a little of this and a little of that and you can make just about anything. From them I have learned that you don’t need a bunch of fancy schmancy ingredients to make a meal that will impress.

 
Q: What is your go-to dish or meal?
A: Pot Roast Chicken! There is nothing better than a good old oven-roasted chicken. Pair it with carrots, potatoes and homemade pan gravy. Goodness, it just screams comfort food. Add some homemade yeast rolls and it’s pure heaven.

 
Q: Any strange foods or food combinations that you really enjoy?
A: Rice or pasta with scrambled eggs. Sometimes I toss in some soy sauce. I know it sounds weird and maybe even gross but let me explain. When I was pregnant with my firstborn child I had horrible morning sickness. Really, it was all-day sickness. The only thing I could keep down was cream of wheat, plain pasta, plain rice and scrambled eggs. You eventually learn to mix things up a bit. Surprisingly it stayed down. So that was my diet for 9 months. I still eat it today when no one’s around. When my oldest son who is 16 sees it he says, “Mom, that is so gross.” I always tell him it’s his fault I love it so much.

 
Q: What ingredient or kitchen technique gives you the most trouble?
A: Candy making. I either don’t boil the mixture long enough or I boil it too long. I can never get it quite right.

 
Q: What is your favorite kitchen tool?
A: Well, I am not sure if you would consider this a kitchen tool or not, but my cast iron skillet. You know, the ones that your grandma used to cook with. I can cook just about anything in my iron skillet. Apple crisp, cobbler, buttermilk biscuits, pizza, a chicken dinner and even a skillet cookie. I don’t know what I would do without it. So I guess you could say I have a serious love affair with my iron skillet.

 
Q: Give us one of your favorite kitchen tips that you wish you’d always known.
A: Patience and love! Just have a little patience and you can make just about anything. Remember if it doesn’t turn out, well then just pick yourself up and try again. Secondly, always remember to cook from your heart. If you love what you’re doing and who your cooking for, it will always show through in whatever dish you make. It’s not about what you cook, but how you cook it.

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Amen to that, Tina!

 
Tina’s recipe box here is just chock-full of down-to-earth goodness. Go check it out! For even more of her recipes, head to her blog, Mommy’s Kitchen. She says it’s where family meals and memories are made, and you know, she’s right. Mommies have a way of always being right.

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