share! Everyone has a story, and we hope you will help us tell the tales of a variety of Des Moines cooks. Please send us your ideas. Tell us the names, contact information, and a little about your cooking friends. Send to Recipes@WelcomeHomeDesMoines.com. carol’s go-to summer recipe: Pickled Mostaccioli Here is a go-to pasta salad I enjoy making for summer picnics and potlucks. The tangy, vinegar-based dressing calls for a cucumber and is easy to make in the blender. 1 16-oz. box mostaccioli (or other pasta) dressing: 1½ cups vinegar 1½ cups sugar 2 tablespoons yellow mustard 1 tablespoon parsley 1 medium onion, sliced 1 medium cucumber, peeled and sliced 1 teaspoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon coarse pepper Cook pasta according to package directions; drain. Toss with a small amount of oil. Put remaining ingredients in blender container; blend. Pour dressing over pasta. Make a day ahead of serving to allow flavors to blend. Cover and refrigerate. Keeps up to 2 weeks, covered, in refrigerator.

We may cook differently than our mothers, but many of us really enjoy the process. welcome home des moines is launching a new column called “In the Kitchen with . . .” We want to focus on everyday cooks, not professional chefs, people who love the preparation process on a day-to-day basis. We hope you will help us find those cooks—your neighbors, your friends, your families—women, men, teens. We want to know why they enjoy cooking, what their specialties are, and a favorite recipe. Many of us grew up at the hands of hard-working parents who knew how to make do with what they had. That may not be how we function today, but it is part of our DNA. Just to get us started, we’ll bare our own soul. As the “recipe chick,” I grew up in an era when Sunday dinners alternated with roast beef this week and some form of chicken next week (oh, those wonderful homemade noodles). I’m not sure what happened to Sunday dinners along the way, but that was a lovely time in our food memory. Iowa is blessed with lots of ethnic pockets—Irish, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Czech, Irish, and German, and I have loved learning of those food customs over time. I’m reminded of a food history book I have. “You are what you eat,” right? Well, this book is called You Eat What You Are, meaning you are influenced by your heritage. Certainly, my Norwegian friends who love lefse know the drill. Like most mothers, I find that my cooking has gone through many stages, from the ubiquitous mac ’n’ cheese for toddlers to short-order meals in shifts for teens juggling meals around school, sports, and work schedules. Now, with the kids all grown up, cooking for two isn’t always as easy as it sounds. We will want to explore how others handle those food phases of life and to celebrate the foods that make us Iowa cooks. As a food judge at the Iowa State Fair for 25 years, I adore the dedication that Iowans put into their fair entries. Welcome Home sponsors a Souper Soup contest, and we’ve had lots of fun with that the past few years.

The tantalizing judging task started because I was a food and home writer for the Des Moines Register for many years. My first experience involved judging 98 cakes. My co-judge, a Better Homes and Gardens food editor who was pregnant, got sick during the process. I told her to leave; she wasn’t being fair to herself, her baby, or the person whose entry she was judging. That left me alone. Needless to say, we didn’t eat cake at our house for months and months. Baking is my favorite food area. I’m a card-carrying chocoholic, but lately I’ve been going through my “lemon phase.” At the holidays, I make many, many quick breads for friends and neighbors. It’s just something I do. One weekend a month, I’m a volunteer baker for Hospice of Central Iowa, making cookies or other treats for the families visiting their relatives at Kavanagh House. My mom died there, and she was known for her cookies. I think she would be pleased. Baking cookies is also a fun activity with grandchildren as they learn how to carefully measure and mix. Yes, of course, we have to sample the finished product. Also, it’s hard to take the small town out of the girl. My husband loves to grow tomatoes, and we have a system down pat for canning them the old-fashioned way. I love being able to use home-grown tomatoes in fall and winter meals such as chili, beef stew, and Swiss steak. Store-bought canned tomatoes just don’t offer the same taste. I encourage you to consider your own food heritage. Were there special dishes your grandma or aunts always brought to family dinners? Do you include them in your special times today? Write down those recipes and treasure them. They are part of your history.