This Cookbook features easy to make recipes that are suitable for every meal or occasion.
Cooking and baking are both things that I have grown up doing. They both have really just become natural to me. So writing my own cookbook has been a dream of mine for over 30 years. I wanted to create a cookbook that was easy to use by an experienced cook or a new bride just starting out. I wanted to offer simple every day recipes that could be used for any meal or occasion. When I began to gather recipes I was hoping to have at least 100 to offer, but when the cookbook was finally finished and ready to be submitted to the publisher, it contained over 425 recipes! I didn't waste pages with "filler information pages", because when I buy a cookbook I buy it for the recipes, not information that I can google!
But first I should explain what this cookbook does not contain. There are no recipes with hard to find or hard to pronounce ingredients. It is not a "gourmet" cookbook, by any stretch of the imagination. These are the recipes that I feed my family with, some are handed down through my family, recipes I have used to cater special events, and these are the recipes that people have asked me for over and over. I have said many times that people think I am a good cook, but actually I just use very simple recipes. Now my secret will be out!!
One of the first steps of getting this cookbook put together was creating the cover. This step was very important to me, since I grew up on "The Midland Trail", I know what that means. It is much more than a "scenic highway", it is the people that actually make "The Midland Trail". The people that come together when it's needed, the people that have pride in their community, the people that work hard everyday to provide for their family. The people whose hearts are as beautiful as the natural scenery of the Midland Trail.
The picture that I wanted on the cover of the cookbook, I had carried with me since I first thought of writing a cookbook. But I am by no means an artist, so trying to explain to someone what I wanted seemed impossible. I wanted to show some of the most popular highlights along The Midland Trail, such as Babcock Grist Mill, Hawks Nest Overlook, Cathedral Falls, and of course The New River Gorge Bridge. I wanted to convey how the Midland Trail is more than scenery, and explain how the people over this large mountain area come together when needed. Even though there is the "top of the mountain" and "the valley", and "both sides of the bridge", it is really all blended together to make "The Midland Trail". A picture to tell a story, no easy task. So I turned to our friend, Brianne Larisse Solomon, knowing if anyone could "get" what I was trying to describe she would be it. After just a few quick messages back and forth, she began working on the picture. I looked at the first 'draft" that she sent to me, and instantly I knew that she got it! She took the picture that I have carried in my mind and heart for over 30 years and drew it on a piece of paper, more beautiful that i could have ever dreamed it would be. When she sent me the finished picture, I held it in my hands and marveled at it's beauty. All four scenic pictures are "blended" together, connected by the water that flows through each. It is perfect!
Then I began to type in all the recipes. But the real task here was proofreading all the recipes that I typed. Again, I turned to a pro to help me, our son Stephen Wilson. Stephen spent many hours reading, correcting and re-wording where needed. He not only proofread all the recipes, but he helped me write the personal pages that are included in the cookbook. If I have a talent for cooking, Stephen has a bigger talent with words.
Without Brianne and Stephen, this cookbook would not have been the finished product that it is. I can never thank them enough for sharing their talents to create this cookbook.
I hope this cookbook will become your "go to cookbook", when you need to make a covered dish for a church dinner, need to fix a quick meal for your family, make treats for a school bake sale, or whatever the need may be. And I hope it becomes something that you want to share with your family and friends. I look forward to giving my granddaughters a copy, so when it is time for them to begin cooking/baking they will reach for their Nana's cookbook. I hope you will too.
