I had an idea this morning while puttering around the house: I wish there was an online cookbook of family recipes, and new favorites. Then I started thinking about how Michelle, Lynn and I love chatting about food and what we’re making for our families. What if there was a website where I could find Aunt Elva’s baked beans, my mom’s graham cracker fluff, Lynn’s Reese’s cheesecake, Michelle’s famous Caesar salad, and Lou’s amazing peanut butter chocolate chip cookies? Wouldn’t that be convenient? I called Lynn and Michelle, and We Have Plenty was born.

We all share a sameness in our food heritage. Raised Mennonite, we’ve grown up eating dinners made from the More With Less cookbook. Some of the food, we’ve loved and hold dear. Other recipes, we’ve learned to modernize. Then there are a few recipes that we’ve chosen to leave behind, but yet we love reminiscing over. We all decided that a blog would be the perfect way to share and preserve our culinary heritage while introducing more modern, meals that have become part of our families today.

Each of us have our own styles: Lynn is always making amazing weekday meals that are perfect for a meat-lovin’ family. Michelle brings a Southern California influence to her cooking, and has creative workarounds for food allergies. I love nearly-vegetarian cooking, and usually drift away from recipes to make up something totally new and different.

The name We Have Plenty captures our heritage and our current lifestyles. As kids, our moms (Elva and Orpha) taught us to make do with what we had. “You’re not going to the store just to buy one thing,” my mom would say. “We have plenty here.” We have plenty also captures our upbringing when there was always room for another dinner guest: “Pull up a chair, there’s plenty of food for everyone!” And today, even in our smaller families, it means that we are thankful for what we have. We don’t need more to be happy.

Food is family. Food is heritage. And food is culture. The three of us have learned to love the process of cooking much as sharing it with our families.

So here we go – Michelle, Lynn and Myra, with plenty of ideas, stories and recipes.