About

I, Linda, am the matriarch of our family at age 82. This website is our collaborative effort. We enjoy easy-to-make recipes, and we are happy to share them with you. This isn’t to say that you won’t find a few more challenging recipes along the way.

Simply Great Recipes features recipes we developed and collected over the years. the recipes have all been tried and approved. Recipes range from comforting soups and hearty mains to indulgent desserts. We offer helpful resources such as cooking basics, kitchen charts, and a food dictionary to support home cooks of all levels.

This is one of our family’s aspiring bakers, my great-granddaughter Nova, admiring the first Lemony Lemon Cake she made by herself (2023). Nova will soon be ten years old, and she is the oldest of my great-grandchildren. Valor is six years old, and he is also learning to cook. Jane Kay is not yet one year old, but she will have plenty of family around to teach her the ropes.

What does our family eat?

We are a family of carnivores. You will not find one vegetarian in our family. We do, however, enjoy a few meatless main dishes such as Hominy Chili, Vegetable Lo Mein, and Ooey Gooey Mac and Cheese. Our family enjoys food from all cultures, and we have been making these recipes for years.

About our family

If you would ask any of us which cuisine we like best, it is hands down MEXICAN FOOD! Given that we left our Midwest roots behind 52 years ago to relocate to the Arizona Sonoran Desert, that is no surprise. I, my daughter, grandchildren and great-grandchildren were all born west of the Mississippi River, specifically Iowa and Arizona.

Childhood food memories…

We spent our childhood summers at my maternal grandparent’s house in Muscatine, Iowa, where I was born. My father stayed at home managing our family’s dairy farm in southern Illinois. My Swiss grandfather and German grandmother had a large home in Muscatine. My grandfather had a vineyard up the hill behind the house. He raised both white and red grapes. Beehives flanked two sides of the vineyard. We were raised on honey straight from the honeycomb and plenty of grape juice. The honey was obtained by setting the honeycomb over a dish, poking holes in it, and letting the delicious honey run out. My grandfather was never stung by a bee in all his 90 years on earth. In his spare time (LOL), he worked for 50 years for the Rock Island Line.

Below that vineyard, down in the gully, was a huge garden where produce was raised. That great Mississippi River soil held tomatoes, potatoes, zucchini, dill, rhubarb, peas, green beans, okra, bell peppers, strawberries, and much more. Given our ethnicity, chile peppers were not a part of that garden. In addition, we had blackberry and red and black raspberry bushes.