Fresh From Our Garden

After weeks of waiting our tomatoes are finally starting to get ripe. I made the salad with everything fresh from our garden or homemade, including the fresh mozzarella. If only I could have made the olive oil then it would have truly been home grown.

What's a LivyBean?

LivyBean is what we have called our youngest daughter since birth. Little did I know this nickname would come to start a whole new life for our family. Recently Livy was diagnosed with celiac disease and boy, has that changed all of our lives.
First, you have to understand that I come from one of those amazing great farm families. I may have only one brother but I was blessed with Aunts & Uncles galore, and needless to say, a plethora of cousins (almost 20!) and now most of us have families of our own. As an Owen, we show our love with FOOD, and when I say we love each other we really LOVE each other. Growing up all I ever knew was when the Owens got together the food came out at breakfast and rotated throughout the day based on our moods. I'm talking homemade full fat, butter, white flour and sugar loaded into every casserole, side dish, bread or pastry, cake, cookie, pie or any other decadent dish to fit our mood.
I learned to cook at my grandmothers side watching her whip up enough food to feed an army in what seemed like two minutes flat. As I grew up I have come to be known as the cook of the family. My nephew, William, just told me the other day that I'm the best cook in the world (he's great at the compliments). Having learned from the best, I felt completely confident to take on any recipe out there no matter how intimidating. Well, that all changed when the doctor sent me home with a packet of info on living with a celiac. And so the birthing process of LivyBean started. This blog is in response to all my friends and family that keep asking me to blog my journey, share recipes and teach them a whole new way of cooking. Let's get started together.