About The Yummy Life

Welcome!  I’m so glad you stopped by.  If this is your first visit, here’s some info to acquaint you with me and The Yummy Life blog. This is a place to share recipes, random tips and thoughts, and have a conversation about all things yummy in life.

There's a connection between the name The Yummy Life and a baby turtle, of all things. If you're curious, you can read my post about Yummy the Turtle. 

Here’s a bit about me, the writer, cook, wife, mother, daughter, sister, auntie, friend.

Name:
Monica Matheny

Age:
56. Might as well just get that out there. So there it is.

Live in:
St. Louis, Missouri.  Home of the Arch, the Rams and Cardinals (spoken with reverence--we love our Rams and Cards), gooey butter cake, toasted ravioli, the King of Beers, Ted Drewes frozen custard, El Taco Burrito, steamy summers, gorgeous autumns, and the best friends a girl could ever have.

Married to:
King-Man. You’ll be hearing a lot about him. Oh, there’s much to tell.
If you’re wondering why I call him King-Man.  .  .

• It’s not because he’s King in our house.  You can forget about that idea.
• It’s not because he’s King of my heart.  Even though he truly is and has been for 32+ years now.
• It’s not because he’s a fan of Elvis “The King”.  Even though King-Man saw Elvis in concert when he was alive and does consider him to be THE King.
• I call him King-Man because, as it turns out, his last name is actually King.  Sorry not to be more original.  King-Man is his unclever, unoriginal nickname.  So, there you have it.

You can read more about King-Man in my posts:
Married to a Serial Cereal Eater
30 Years with King-Man 

We are:
Emptynesters with 2 grown sons.

T-Man:
Our younger son is 27 and lives in San Francisco. 

• T-Man is for Tyler (his actual name);
• T-Man is for Turtle (he has had pet turtles since he was somewhere around 7 years old; still does);
• T-Man is for Techie (he is, in fact, the one who programs, creates graphics, and performs all of the techie voodoo required to make this blog and website functional and beautiful).

Without T-Man, The Yummy Life blog would not exist. And that’s the truth.  He is one talented, turtle loving, techie guy.

When given a choice, T-Man chooses greasy fast food and Totino's frozen pizzas above all else.  This flies in the face of everything I believe in, but I love him anyway.  Because he is my Techie Guy, and this website could not exist without him. There are other reasons, but we’ll leave it at that for now.

T-Man and his brother, Bracken, have a thriving online company that provides small businesses with simple CRM software. 

Brackenthebox:
Our older son is 30 and lives in Boston.

Bracken is his real name.  Our family has a long history with Jack-In-The-Box (I’m talking about the fast food chain here), but that’s another story for another day.  As nicknames go in our family, Brackenthebox is pretty clever, don’t you think?  It definitely trumps King-Man and T-Man on the clever meter. Bracken is a brainiac with a PhD (like his dad), and thus fodder for much teasing about his geekiness.  We’re pretty relentless about such teasing in our family.

Bracken is married to our wonderful daughter-in-law, Rachel.  We knew Rachel was a keeper when (1) she seemed to get King-Man’s wacky sense of humor, and, (2) she promised  loyalty to tolerance for the St. Louis Rams and Cardinals in her wedding vows. What more could we ask?

Bracken and Rachel are both busy professionals, but take the time to enjoy cooking and trying new recipes together.  Those apples didn’t fall far from the tree.  We love to eat and talk food. They've even guest posted on The Yummy Life.

And most importantly....Bracken and Rachel are parents to our one-and-only grandchild, Wesley. He's perfect. Enough said.

Cooking Credentials:
Well, nothing professional. My training took place in my mom's kitchen as a young girl and in my own kitchen as I raised a family. There are many good cooks in my family tree including my country cookin' grandma, my healthy cooking mother, my gourmet cooking sisters and brothers-in-law, my sweets cooking father, my southern cooking step-mother, my adventurous cooking son and daughter-in-law, my canning cooking father-in-law, and my, uh, cold cereal cooking husband. I'll stop there, although I have aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews who are also extraordinary cooks. Clearly we are a family that loves food and loves to cook. I've learned from all of them and through trial and error through the years in my own kitchen.

I like:

• All of the above family members and more. I am blessed with a great family, both near and far.
• My girlfriends.  More now than ever.
• Messing with recipes to make them easier, tastier, or healthier—preferably all three.
• Jane Austen movies.  Pretty much all of them.  A perfect day is watching Pride and Prejudice with my girlfriends (the 6 hour PBS version).  There’s usually chocolate involved.
• Photographs—taking them, displaying them, sharing them, savoring them,  cropping down my hips in them.
• Spicy foods—I grew up in New Mexico and Arizona and come by this naturally.
• Traveling—everywhere.
• Boat rides on the lake with King-Man.  A little slice of heaven right there.
• Margaritas and mojitos.  Come to me, my pretty.

I don’t like:

• Rude people. 
• Raisins in baked goods. Ick.
• Reality TV shows. Sorry, I just don’t get why they’re so popular. They seem to be anything but reality. Okay, I do like Top Chef. That one’s kind of fun. 
• Martinis. Not for me. Right up there with rubbing alcohol.
• Ticks. The idea of insects that crawl under my skin totally creeps me out.
• Putting away groceries.  I like buying them—hate putting them away. 

You can read more about The Yummy Life in my post:
The Beginning of The Yummy Life 

Enough about me. Here are a few other tidbits you should know:

Comments:
PLEASE share your thoughts on my blog posts so I know that I’m not out here all alone in the blogosphere. You have no idea how much I love hearing from you. I feel such a kinship with my readers and friends who visit me at The Yummy Life.  Any and all comments are welcome, even when you disagree with me.  Just remember to be constructive and kind.  This is not a place for mean, ugly comments (see #1 above under what “I don’t like”).  We’re, after all, chatting about the YUMMY life. All comments will appear with my posts, unless they’re unkind or ugly.

Products and affiliations:
As I share recipes and miscellaneous tips, I will sometimes mention particular products that I use and love.  Something has to be near the top of my “yummy things” list to get a mention or recommendation from me.  I will only mention products that are tried-and-true in my kitchen and home.  If I talk about a kitchen gadget, it’s only because I use it, love it, and personally recommend it.

I do have an Amazon.com affiliate account that makes it possible for me to provide Amazon links for some of the products that I recommend.  Amazon pays me a small commission on any sales from those links. I confess to being a bit of an Amazon junkie myself.  Don’t tell King-Man.

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