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 (20) 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 serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in California!
• BigA (17), a lovely girl who is coming into her own in the kitchen: watch for contributing posts.
• MiddleK (15), future Food Network star, who stages her own cooking show for the younger two.
• LittleA (10), 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 (8), 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: 23 years of marriage (and counting), resulting in over 8000 dinners cooked (not to mention breakfasts, lunches,  and snacks); over 70 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).