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 ourselves developed and those we 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.

Our Aspiring Baker

This is one of our family’s aspiring bakers, my great-granddaughter Nova Ann Marie, admiring the first Lemony Lemon Cake she made by herself (2023). Nova is now 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. And, to top it all off, a new future home cook will be arriving in February 2026!

What does our family eat?

We are a family of carnivores. You will not find one vegetarian in our family. We do, however, enjoy 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 many of these recipes for years. You will, however, find newer recipes that we have tried and liked so much that we would make them again.

What we use and don’t use in our kitchen

We do not use any seed oils in our cooking; canola, vegetable oil, etc. We use only oils such as olive oil, avocado oil and coconut oil.

We use any sugar substitutes that we can, such as honey and maple syrup, when feasible in our recipes. We never use artificial sugar.

Slowly but surely we are eliminating all plastic storage containers, etc. and are using glass instead. We have found that old refrigerator glass with lids is great for storage.

We use glass mixing bowls…never anything plastic.

We use stainless steel measuring cups and spoons.

We do not use aluminum foil as aluminum can leach into food. This makes packet cooking nearly impossible, so we use 9, 12 or 16 ounce oven-safe glass or ceramic ramekins with lids. We think this gives even better results. One drawback is that you can’t use the ramekins for campfire cooking.

We do not use nonstick pots and pans. Instead we use stainless steel, cast iron or enameled cast iron.

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 Midwestern roots behind 53 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 grandparents’ home 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 gave us sweet corn, 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. We always bought our watermelons and cantaloupes on “The Island” in the Mississippi River. I have yet to find watermelons and cantaloupes as delicious as those. We also purchased large smoked sturgeon from the fish market. We would set those in the center of the table and we would chop pieces off for individual eating. Those were the days, my friends!

What you will find at Simply Great Recipes…

We have collected recipes for many years. You will see recipes from that collection. You will also see recipes from some of our favorite food organizations, such as the National Pork Board. We have explicit written permission to use their recipes that we have made time and time again. Yes, they are that good!