About Me

The Bountiful Kitchen

(it's never really this tidy)

I'm fortunate enough to be a stay at home mom for the past 21 years.  I love being a mother :) I was born in Okinawa, Japan. My mom is Japanese and my dad from the U.S. of A.  I have been married to Grant (crazed bow hunter, baseball fanatic, most enthusiastic person you have ever met, and best friend) for 29 years and have four great kids- two girls and two boys. We live in a town called Bountiful. It is (almost) as blissful as it sounds.
I learned to love cooking while I was going to Dixie College in the early 80's. I took a bread and pie making class with my dear friend Angie. A sweet lady with white hair (Mrs. Barton) taught us how to make bread, rolls, cinnamon rolls, donuts and my favorite- PIE. I was hooked! I loved that you could start out with flour, sugar, fruit, and an hour or so later end up with something that was beautiful, smelled wonderful and tasted so good! 
Much more successful than my sewing experiments.


frequently asked questions...

• Do you take your own photos? If so what camera do you use? Yes, I take all of my own photos, with the exception of a couple early recipes, when I was getting my blog up and running.  I use a Canon T1i.  I know just enough about shooting photos to get by. I do know the best shots of food are taken in natural light.
• Do you cook like this every night? No, I usually cook about 2-3 nights a week, the rest of the time we eat leftovers or grilled cheese, or quesadillas, just like you :)
• How come you don't weigh 300 pounds? I was blessed with an amazing metabolism.  I have started to gain weight the last few years...age :(    Being 5'8 helps.  I eat small meals throughout the day, and I'm somewhat choosy about what I eat, if it doesn't taste good to me, I have no problem passing. 
• What is your favorite kitchen appliance? Hands down, my Kitchen Aide stand mixer. 
• What do you recommend if I'm giving a kitchen related gift item? See this post.
• I have an item I would like to send you as a gift, then have you do a review for me.  To preserve the integrity of this blog, I don't accept gifts. Thanks though!  I do accept donations for giveaways at times.  Mostly, I purchase the giveaway gifts as a way to say thanks for reading. And I love you. That too :)
• How much time does it take you to do a post?  Well, it depends on the post, how much "journaling" I do along with the recipe.  On average 1-2 hours total. 
• Do you have a recipe for _______? The best way to see if I have a recipe on my blog is key in a recipe name or main ingredient  into the "search this blog" bar . Top right of side bar, or look through the index. 
• I have a question, how can I contact you? Send an email to Abountifulkitchen at gmail dot com.  I will do my best to respond quickly.
• Do you teach cooking classes? Yes, I do. I am the cooking class director at South Fork Hardware Cooking Center in North Salt Lake, UT see this post for details, or check out our Facebook Page South Fork Hardware Cooks. 
• Advice for new or young cooks, just starting out? Don't ever say "I HATE cooking!" If you say you hate cooking, it will taste like you hate cooking. Grant loves to say "Words have creative powers". He's right. 
• Any advice for me if I'm just starting my own blog? Write about what you love! I think that's the number one rule. Also very important:  If you want to keep the blog name you have chosen, purchase the domain name, even if you are simply using the "blogspot" address to publish your posts. Why? Let's say you start a blog with the name "Mary's Marvelous Kitchen" and use a blogspot address. Great. After a year or so, you decide you really love blogging. People look up your blog by using your name.  All of your recipes are cataloged through this name. Then you decided to buy the domain name Mary's Marvelous Kitchen dot com. But someone else owns that name. Sure they are glad to sell it to you. For a price. Now, something that should cost you $10 a year will cost you hundreds.  It happens, all of the time.  Read more about my nightmare with this here. 
• Why do you blog? I love sharing recipes and my love of cooking with family and friends.  It's convenient for me as well, to catalog recipes I love in one place.  I hope that my love of food and cooking will take the mystery out of cooking and encourage others to cook at home more often!