Sara Wells and Kate Jones
We're just two girls who love to cook! We're also both wives and mothers balancing home management, part-time work, church and community involvement, and a myriad of other things. So we're probably just like you! We want to show you that cooking at home can be a delicious, fun, and easy way to express yourself and to care for your families and friends.
We started our blog in March of 2008 and thanks to our loyal and wonderful readers, it has morphed into something bigger than we ever anticipated. And we love it. Our cook book, "Best Bites: Mormon Moms in the Kitchen" will be released in the spring of 2011.
I was born and raised in the Seattle area, and moved to Boise after marrying an Idaho boy. I attended Brigham Young University and earned a degree in Horticulture with an emphasis in Landscape Design. I love the outdoors and still squeeze in a little design when I have the time. I also love digital scrapbooking, photography, and reality tv (so sue me).
Food and cooking have always been the at the center of my family. I grew up following my Mom around in the kitchen, and now I have 3 of my own little helpers (darn cute ones too!) I love cooking and baking and have a serious addiction to carbohydrates. My sweetie Eric is my best taste-tester and we love cooking and entertaining together. Well I love entertaining and he loves eating the food and he happily agrees to do the dishes as well. It works. He's also the official medical director of our kitchen (when he's off-duty providing the same service for the locals), which is a good thing, because as a certified klutz I have on more than one occasion needed serious medical care in the middle of my cooking adventures! We also both speak Portuguese and have lived in Brazil and that has definitely influenced my cooking style. (Just take a look at how much lime juice I use!)
I was raised in Logan, Utah and, much to the disappointment of my father who is a Ute and an Aggie, I also attended Brigham Young University where I majored in English. Which I have always said basically qualifies me to make sandwiches. Which I eat a lot of. I'm a mom to two kids, 4 and 1 (those are their ages, not their names) and wife to a guy who likes to play with toys. My husband is an engineer, so there are many "discussions" about how keys belong in one and only place and whether or not a construction level is necessary in the hanging of pictures.
We are recent transplants to the South where apparently the mosquitoes missed the memo that they're supposed to be DEAD by December. I love food--cooking, eating, looking at it. I'll try anything once; I had a little squirrel stew after I moved to Louisiana! There are few foods I hate, but scrambled eggs I have to cook myself will trigger my gag reflex every single time.
Our Story
One of the most common questions people ask us is "How do you know each other?" Especially considering that we live on opposite ends of the country. It's an interesting story and goes to show how sometimes the universe just puts people in your path when you're supposed to be friends! Here's the story (told in the third person so you can imagine it in whatever foreign accent suits your fancy.)
As mentioned in her bio, Sara grew up in Bellevue, Washington. She went to the same church congregation and high school as Kate's husband, Sam. Sam was several years older than Sara, but one of Sara's closest friends growing up was Sam's younger brother, so she spent lots of time with their family and in their home. When Sara was 21, she left to serve a mission for the LDS church in Curitiba, Brazil. While in Brazil, she heard about Sam getting married and even saw pictures of the darling blond girl in her white dress. Likewise, as Kate married into her husband's family, all she heard about that first summer was Sara on her mission in Brazil.
Fast forward several years. Kate is living in Utah with Sam and their young son. Sara is also married, living in Oregon with her husband and young son. Unbeknownst to each other, they both frequent the same on-line parenting forum and know of each other by their screen names. It wasn't until one day when Sara was responding to a question on the forum about the Seattle area that Kate made the connection of who she was, realizing it was the same girl she had heard about who used to date her brother in law. Sara got an email in her inbox that day that said, "Hey! I know who you are!" The two girls quickly became friends and found they had more in common that the boys in a particular family. They loved the same types of food and recipes and had similar styles in cooking and entertaining. They became close friends, even though they rarely got to see each other in person.
Fast forward again. Kate and Sara both have 2 kids and needed a project. One day Kate says, "Hey, we should start a food blog together!" They started a site, put on a few of their favorite recipes with some simple photos from their point and shoot cameras and sent the link out to a few friends. They never, ever imagined it would turn into what it is today!
