In the News

So, a few weeks ago I got a call from a lady at the Daily Herald.  She said she wanted to do an interview with me because I won a baking contest.  My first thought was, 'Wow, we really don't have any news here.'  But, it ended up being kind of fun.  She came to the house in the morning.  I made her a pie.  She did say a few things that were not exactly correct in the article.  I do not bake bucket loads of food everyday.  Here's the article as it appears in the paper (I've removed the name of my town).

Karissa Neely - Correspondent

 -- Banoffee. Odd sounding name, but absolutely deliciously winning treat.

C.H. resident Stephanie Partridge won this summer's Family Festival Taste of C.H. contest with her Banoffee Pie -- a bit of some old recipes from England, and a bit of Partridge's additions.

"My husband used to rave about this banana cream pie he had on his mission in England. At Thanksgiving one year, we had banana cream pie, and he said, 'That's not banana cream pie!' But it was," Partridge said. "In England, it's much different, all caramelly."

The pie traditionally has bananas, coffee, toffee and caramel. Partridge changed it up a bit, substituting more caramel, toffee and chocolate for the coffee, creating a yummy success.

"I pretty much add everything scandalous and naughty and call it good. If you're going to go decadent, you might as well go all the way," Partridge said with a laugh.

Partridge calls herself a "domestic nerd" and has a love for all things domestic. Though she wasn't much of a cook when younger, once she married and started having children, she felt the need for a skill she could enjoy. She has developed a deep love for cooking; it is now an essential outlet for her creativity.

"Cooking is something you have to do, so you might as well enjoy it. With three kids under 6 years old, you need an outlet. So I do my cooking late at night when my kids are in bed, and I have fresh food at 10 p.m.," she said with a smile. "My kids get the leftovers in the morning."

Her creativity not only paid off with the Cedar Hills contest, but more importantly, it's paid off with her family. Her oldest son has developed his own love of cooking. Partridge said he loves to create "concoctions," which sometimes turn out, and sometimes are "a bit weird."

"But it's important for kids to learn how to cook," Partridge said. "If you involve them in what you love, they gain confidence, because they see how much you enjoy it and your success."

Her son found that confidence, and has wanted to share it -- even convincing his mother to videotape him teaching viewers how to crack an egg -- a skill he's worried many people in the world don't have.

Her husband Brett readily admits he didn't grow up with home cooking. "We did have a garden, it was called Taco Bell," he said joking, but also said he is grateful for how Stephanie's skills benefit his family.

"I'm used to sticking to the same recipes so it's an adjustment and always a surprise to see how Stephanie might change things up," he said. "The vast majority of time, her changes are for the better. Often because it's 'sneaking' in veggies or other healthy ingredients into the meal. Besides the food itself, the biggest blessing of her love for cooking and baking is that she's instilled that love in our kids. They are very open to different foods -- far more open than I ever was as a child."

She cooks and bakes buckets of yumminess each day, but she shares her treats with as many others as possible, so she won't end up on the rotund side.

"I eat small portions, and give the rest away. You have to really savor your food," she said.

She also shares her recipes on her website, www.triedandtruesday.com. Originally, the site was simply a way to organize the "pile of recipes in a corner" of her kitchen, and she didn't remember what worked and which ones were good. Now, every day she simply props up her iPad, goes to her site, and decides what to fix.

"It's nice, because my husband can troll through it at work and tell me what he wants for dinner," she said.

Even better, all of her recipes have pictures she's taken herself so when other people ask for a recipe, which they do often, she can just send them to her site and they can see how to cook it and how it should look.

And yes, the Banoffee Pie looks good on her site, but it tastes even better.