Grab yourself a seat on the freezer and let me tell you a little bit about myself and how this whole shebang came together.

Some years ago my dad was working on our family tree. I, too, had a small passion for genealogy and had planned on expanding upon what my dad had already accomplished. I had read somewhere that family cookbooks were often used to record family histories. In addition to learning what a family enjoyed eating, these books would sometimes also contain personal notes about the family, itself. The cookbooks were usually passed down and the head cook of the family (usually a woman) became, essentially, the family historian. As far as I know, there isn’t a family cookbook on either side of my or my husband’s families, so since I love to cook myself, I decided to create one.

My first idea was to create a book that I could give to family. They could add to it and later pass them down. But then I saw how much it was going to cost! Shortly after “A Web Site Created by Babs” made its debut Tripod began offering pages that I could put my recipes on. They served their purpose for the time, but I decided if I wanted to design the “book” I truly wanted, I would have to create my own pages, and thus began the creation of “Crunchy Granola”. Alas, Tripod started being a bitch, so I was forced to move my collection of recipes elsewhere. Namely, Blogger. Unfortunately “Crunchy Granola”, in its various forms, has already been taken as a username, so I opted for the oh so original Babs Recipes/Cookbook. Since then I shut down my online store and allowed my alter ego to take over the domain. A writer’s blog doesn’t take up any where near as much space as a store, and what with DrakNet giving me more space I decided to move everything one more time. Unless I should have a fallout with Jen (and that doesn’t seem very likely) “Babs Gets Cooking” and Draknet will be the really and truly permanent home for my recipe file.

Here is where the recipes I have collected can now call home. You’ll find all sorts of goodies here, ranging from traditional to new and healthy. I am planning to add more vegetarian recipes, as soon as I remember where I put them. Those that I’ve gleamed from other cookbooks, have mention of that book so you can look it up and see if there are any other recipes you like. Most have been altered enough that they can be considered my own, though.

Okay, time to get comfy and commence to browsing. Before you head on to the recipes, you might want to check out “Tools of the Trade” and “A Few of My Favorite Foods” for more information on how I cook.