Great Recipes Dipped in Alcohol and Wrapped in A Wonderful Story!
A 2-page title spread from the book - Grandma's cookbook
When I was a teenager, my Mennonite grandmother caught my mom cooking with wine and scolded, “Cooking with sin, are we?” I loved that phrase and started this blog in 2009. Many others have joined in and shared their recipes. Each recipe has alcohol in it and each recipe comes with a personal story from the cook. It’s about feeding our bodies and feeding our souls and having a little fun along the way.
Have you noticed how food is like a glue? Everytime you get together with friends, you eat. Visiting with friends or family is richer when food is involved. Business meetings are more effective if food is involved. When you eat and drink together, you hunker down, enjoy yourselves and really connect.
Many cultures and religions around the globe treat alcohol as a “sin” for good reasons. Too much alcohol, like too much of anything, can be a problem. Yet, even when there are strong cultural forces and rules, there is always a rebel or two in the crowd – and they usually have a good story to tell.
Me with my grandma Elizabeth Voth Nickel Dyck and my soon-to-be husband Steven, in the late '80's
The story of my maternal grandmother is the first one I share “Grandma Started It” Chicken Cacciatore. http://cookingwithsin.com/2010/01/12/grandma-started-it/.
I hope to share stories from my family and friends – and anyone else – who have an interesting story to go with a recipe that has alcohol in it. It may be about going against the grain, it may be a great memory, it may be something that has never been told yet. I would love to hear it and share it.
Let me add this. I am not a cook by any means. In fact, I have a great story about the day I bombed at boiling eggs. They literally exploded! I will let the guests be the experts. I love to eat, but I would rather let someone else prepare it. I admire anyone who enjoys cooking. A good cook is similar to a good chemist. Just the right combination of elements with the right temperature over the right amount of time and… voila!
My hope is that our stories connect us. May you bring each other and your stories and connect over the dinner table. We share a connectedness through eating, family & community. We have so much more that we share than what separates us from each other. That is what I love about the human race!
I hope you enjoy connecting with and learning from each other over the stories & recipes in this blog.
Cheers!
Carla
“But Ociffer, I have all soberday to Sunday-up on!”
“I am inebriated by my own inubriance which is quite coherant to the eye and I am not under the alcofluence of incohol as theople pink I am.”
~ The favourite silly sayings from a wonderful man known for his love of laughter and life, my dad Elmer Johnson (1930-2005)
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Hi Carla – been reading your blog for a bit now and just saw your photo and said to my daughter – she looks like someone I went to Briercrest w/ named Carla. ha ha. I was across the hall from you in W-1 and was ‘the trio’ the next year trying to live up to your example! Shannon and I were roomies in White Rock for years after working at Camp Cedarwood together but I now live in Courtenay – mid Vancouver Island, am a nurse, married a fabulous guy from a blind date, homeschool our 3 kids and this momma loves some wine!! Now to try cooking with it not just sinning with it
hope you’re well – you look maaavelous!
Valerie (Buhr) Wiens…
Wow! Valerie! Hi!! What a nice surprise! I’m still shaking my head a little bit.
Glad to hear you are doing well. Love the blind date bit. Bravo!
I’m a big wine fan too. My hubby and I were given a bottle of red called “The Seven Deadly Zins.” We’re going to try it out and I’ll post it. The twist is that zinfandel wines here in the east are all rose, but in the west they are red.
Are you on Facebook? I should advertise it more, but have my own website http://www.CarlaJohnson.ca.
Cheers to you!!
Hi, Carla. I discovered your wonderful site, and thought it seemed like a good fit for our site:
http://www.AllAboutJanesRanch.com
the journey of a city girl re-discovering her inner country girl. Would you be interested in exchanging links?
Just let me know if you’d like your site described in a particular way.
Thanks,
Michael
http://www.AllAboutJanesRanch.com
mc@allaboutjanesranch.com
Hi Michael, I enjoyed looking at your site. It would be great fun if you had a recipe with alcohol in it that went with one of your stories. I would enjoy posting your recipe/story and it would include another link to your site. Let me know!
Nice. Good to read the full story of Oma and cooking with sin. It was good to hear about all of this at Doris’s party.
All the best with publication and the continuation of this great website. I am going to start being more evangelically committed to cooking with sin.
Allan
Thanks Allan! Glad to know I’ve “converted” you.
Carla would love to review your cookbook in a newspaper article. also your kahlua pie on a blog for a big newspaper. told my friend who is the food editor about your pie and she wants me to blog about it for Thanksgiving. Giving you credit it you tell me what to put website, etc. is this ok? I am also a food editor, therefore would love a review copy of the book to write about. Sheilah
Hello Sheilah!
Wonderful! Thank you! I’ll send you an email tonight. I remember you from our LinkedIn Cookbook Author group discussions.
Cheers to you!
Carla