Even as a five year old, I was monumentally unimpressed with going to school everyday. The only highlight was riding on the bus, my first glimpse of freedom and independence, which lasted only a few short moments since we lived so close to the school. While my kindergarten pals happily sang songs, put puzzles together and learned to spell basic words, I remained (not surprisingly) uninterested and somewhat belligerent. Then one day, something really great happened. My first food memory was born.

Someone’s mom came in, armed with tiny foil loaf pans, cooking spray, and ingredients to make a tasty loaf of warm, refined white flour goodness. I even remember the recipe. It was a small little booklet with a red cover that had a hole punched in the left corner and was tied with a red ribbon.

Several times at home, I tried to recreate the bread, which proved a real challenge, especially since, somehow, the recipe was lost. Every attempt I made ended in disaster, but whatever I missed out on in terms of tasting the wonderful bread, hot from the oven, I made up for in enjoyment. It didn’t really bother me that the bread failed every time I tried – half of the fun was in making it!

Anyone passionate about food has a food memory, or, maybe lots of them. Since I was a young child, I knew instinctively that cooking from scratch was worth the effort. Fast forward 25 years... cooking from scratch is still worth the extra effort, and, is more important than ever.

Starting today, you can register in the Mirepoix Cooking from Scratch recipe contest.

To learn more about the contest, please click here:

Once you’ve decided which of your signature recipes you’d like to enter, email them to me at stacysloan@holiday-market.com Please be sure to follow all of the guidelines for submission, as outlined on the Oakland Press page. Incomplete entries will be immediately discarded.

I’m looking forward to reading your recipes. Feel free to also tell me why your recipe is so special to you.