The way I was raised I cherish so much. All the memories I have while spending time in the kitchen watching and learning as my grandmother cooked for her family. The smells that filled the air as her food simmered on the stove. The taste of her homemade preserves and the work she so lovingly put into making them. The precise way she made her peanut butter frosting for the most delicious peanut butter cakes I have ever put in my mouth. The tips and tricks she shared with me while she cooked. So many memories I have and will always have. These memories drive the desire to be the women I want to be. The thought of canning, cooking, mixing, prepping, and making food for my family excites me, it gives me a feeling of accomplishment. So many things I do in the kitchen brings back all the memories I have standing next to my grandmother as a young child, helping her, assisting her with anything she needed. These type of memories that you create with a child will never be forgotten. It isn’t about the stuff you buy them… it’s about the time and love you pour into them.
My grandmother taught me to love and enjoy cooking even when you have had a bad day and everything else around you isn’t going your way because the love you put into what you cook makes it all the better. She had a rough life all the years she spent on this earth. She took care of everyone and always put herself last. She didn’t have the privilege to attend school because her mother died when she was young and it became her responsibility to care for the house and her siblings while her father worked. She married young and practically raised her 6 children( 5 boys and 1 girl)by herself because she had an unfaithful husband. She experienced the death of her youngest and only little girl who was 8 years old because she was hit by a vehicle while crossing the street (my dad seen the whole thing and watched her die, he still has trouble talking about her). She had people living in and out of her house and caring for them her whole life. All she went through and had to do amazes me.
When she would cook she done it with such peace and no complaints, she enjoyed it. I to have grown up to enjoy cooking. I enjoy the process that she taught me while making her preserves. The time it takes to make the best chicken and dumplings you will ever eat. The way you make the most delicious cat-head biscuits you will ever come across. The secrete to her simple homemade gravy. The way she would prepare and fry salmon patties. So many things that I will never forget and that I will get to continue to pass down. I made my first batch of biscuits and gravy when I was 8 years old and still make them the same way today. I was raised to love food and to have a passion to cook it.
One of my greatest dreams is to own a restaurant of my own one day and to have a menu full of my own recipes and to serve only the best homemade food possible. I will remember always of what you have taught me! 
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