Hi there, and welcome to In the Chairs!  The name of this blog comes from one of my daughter’s many creative adventures, a paper collage which says, “A good cook knows it’s not what’s on the table that matters, it’s what’s in the chairs.” Don’t misunderstand,  I also believe that it matters what you put on the table; food should entice people to the table.  But it is the gathering at the table that is the real aim.  In this blog, I hope to celebrate the time-honored, and fast disappearing tradition of family dinner.  I am a wife and the mother of three children, two of whom have left the nest, going away to college and starting their own lives.  We are just 3 at home now, and with busy work schedules, and school, and soccer, and other activities, it is almost always a challenge to find time to sit and eat together, but it can happen, it just takes a little flexibility and creativity.

I come from a long tradition of loving cooks.  My maternal grandmother was famous for her cookies, her homemade french fries with homemade ketchup, and honey candy (like taffy, only made with honey), oh, and scones, not the English tea variety, but of fried bread, dripping with melting butter and honey.  Yes, I felt loved.  My mother is also a great cook, and my dad has an aunt who wrote the food column for the city paper for more than 30 years.  According to my husband, I wasn’t a terrific cook when we got married, but when our first child was born, and I started to stay home to be a mother, I subscribed to Gourmet magazine and cooked my way through each issue with a friend, Jenny Morrison.  Trial and error is a great teacher, even in the kitchen.

Some of our greatest memories are about family, friends, and food.  We celebrate food at our house, and invite you to join in the celebration.