Biography -The Journey Begins

Welcome to Alena’s Home Cooking. My name is Alena Mironets, married to the love of my life Ivan Mironets. We live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with our 4 kids, where we are also surrounded by family and wonderful friends.

I grew up as the 5th child and third girl in the family of 5 girls and 5 boys. You would notice that i was the middle of everything, middle girl, middle child (don’t have the luxury of claiming first or last anything). Growing up in a big family is all kinds of emotions.. fun, loud, busy… loneliness is not a problem and attention is not something you crave, there will always be someone who will intrude into your space (not that we minded). You sing a song once and the whole house will be humming it for a week 🙂 You are trained to feel important, be independent in one thing and rely on family members on another thing. The support system was built strong and remains strong until this day(even after most are now married off).

Large families also divide chores among everyone in the house and that included helping mom make food. Feeding a large crowd every day wasn’t easy for my mom but we were always right beside her to help. Growing up beside my mama’s elbow gave me the head start in my cooking journey. I began cooking alone when I was 9 years old, it was then that I surprised mom with fresh sorrell borsch (sorell soup) when she came home one day and since then mom asked me to cook more and more.

At age 18 I lost my mom to colon cancer, it came unexpectedly, and just within 2 months of going to and from the hospitals, my mama left to be with our Heavenly Father whom she loved and served all her life. At that time being, i was the oldest girl in the house, which meant i needed to cover for mom. Being in charge of the house and 6 other siblings was a lot to carry on my young teen shoulders but i took it as a mission from God. I prayed and cried to Him when i needed help, I looked up and asked for strength when i felt weak, God has NEVER left my side and ALWAYS gave me strength and wisdom how to care for my younger siblings and carried me through tough times.

Taking over the kitchen wasn’t new to me since it wasn’t the first time but it felt cold without mom around. No one to run to when you forget how to make something, no one to give you any ideas or advice, I was on my own from then on. My mom was the greatest cook I know, she hardly ever used recipes to cook. She left without leaving most of her amazing recipes on paper, ever since then myself and my sisters have been trying to re-create them. Even though mom is not around anymore, she still remains to be my biggest inspiration.

I have a passion for cooking and baking, trying new recipes and creating my own is what I love to do most. When they say the kitchen is the heart of the home, I can’t agree more. That’s where you’d find me on the daily.

With years my creativity grew, I created more and more recipes that became family favorites and wanted to put them on paper and that made me want to print my own cookbook or even better create some kind of digital cookbook that I can add on to. I’ve always had people tell me to open up my own food blog and really, it has been my dream for years, but it seemed unreal. It took a while to make it happen because I didn’t know how and where to start. Even though I wasn’t running a blog then, I was living in the heart of my home regardless. Always making something delicious and capturing a photo of the finished product. Over the years a collection of my food photos grew so large that I even printed my own photo book with the food I’ve made, I’ve also printed a small cookbook back in 2013 for my little sister’s birthday one year, and it really came in handy for her.

Whenever I shared photos of my food, I was constantly asked to share recipes so I figured it was time to make dreams come true. My husband is my number one taste tester and my biggest supporter. He motivated me to get started and helped so much along the way. Now I have my online cookbook not only for me to use but for every one who wants to cook up a good meal. Now get cooking and enjoy our delicious dishes.

P.S. Please feel free to comment and write any suggestions you may have that will help me improve my site for your convenience. I am a beginner blogger so please pardon me if I make any mistakes. Stay tuned for much more recipes to come. 😊

Love,

Alena Mironets

Alena’s Home Cooking