About

Welcome to No Empty Chairs!

This blog was created as a way to record and share the joy our family enjoys around our kitchen table.  With a family of seven people constantly going seven (or more) different directions, family meal time is a tradition that we hold fast to.  It is a time to gather together as family (and often friends) to share good food and to talk and laugh about life. Hence-No Empty Chairs. I want no empty chairs at my table. I want all to come hungry and leave nourished, both at mealtime and in life.  And when we all put aside this mortal life, I plan to joy with family and friends where there are No Empty Chairs  at my table through Eternity.

For a more detailed look into the philosophy behind No Empty Chairs, click HERE.

The regular chair warmers in our home include:

• Kelly, also known as cook, chauffeur, maid, gardener, tutor, psychologist, seamstress, doctor, general handyman, and now blogger (ie: Mom)
• Brian, husband and dad, and great sport about all of the adventures in the kitchen from his wife and children!
• BigJ (19), as a teenage boy, will generally eat anything and everything, and is my source of knowledge for all things technical. We are keeping his chair warm while he is far away at college!
• BigA (16), a lovely girl who is coming into her own in the kitchen: watch for contributing posts.
• MiddleK (14), future Food Network star, who stages her own cooking show for the younger two.
• LittleA (9), a happy, full-of-life little boy who eats most everything except chocolate (which does cause some strife in our house at dessert time!).
• LittleJ (7), a precocious little girl whose food likes and dislikes change with the wind.

So please, pull up a chair, and welcome to our table!

My Credentials:

• Schooled at my mother’s knee on the fine art of feeding a family on a limited budget.
• Interned as a teenager in same kitchen. Much experimentation and recalculation. My major textbooks at this point included back issues of Southern Living Magazine.
• Residency as a poor, starving college student who was always willing to trade cooking for cleaning duties with culinary-challenged roommates.
• On-the-job-training: 22 years of marriage (and counting), resulting in over 7000 dinners cooked (not to mention breakfasts, lunches,  and snacks); over 65 children’s birthday cakes and party fare; untold numbers of church pot-luck dinners, neighborhood block parties, holiday meals, cookie exchanges, baby and bridal showers.
• Specialization: Cooking with whole, natural ingredients and limited sugar and processed food (although some days you just need a good, sweet chocolate chip cookie). Currently working to certify in the art of cooking with Stevia, particularly in the area of food preservation (canning).