Friday night, I called my mom to tell her I was going to be taking a photo of her for my blog, she said, “Oh good! I just got my haircut today!”

“Oh really? Did Daddy cut it?” I asked. For years my dad cut my mom’s hair. It was a functional haircut, but not always fancy.

“No, I fired him when I retired,” she said. “I pay a professional to cut my hair now.” (I bet you can’t guess where my sense of humor came from)

Say hi to my mom and dad, Shirley and Sonny. Initially this post was going to be my mom and how she taught me how to cook, but my dad was home and didn’t want to be left out so we included him too

Plus he actually did teach me a few things about cooking, like what not to do in the kitchen, such as reheat stuff on the stove on high.

Not to completely discredit dad’s culinary skills because he IS great on the grill and can smoke a mean brisket, but that’s a future blog post

Mom did teach me a lot about cooking growing up. Her food has always been the envy of others and not just the dishes she makes, but her method. Everyone is always surprised at how she can cook a grand family meal in her cramped galley kitchen at a moment’s notice. At her parties, there was always fresh food on the table the entire evening.

For a long time, I’ve been meaning to gather our family recipes for a album and that’s where today’s sponsor, Once Upon a Family, comes in. After writing this blog post, I realized how valuable these few hours I spent with them were, and I encourage you to do the same with your loved ones.

Once Upon a Family creates products that help you maintain family traditions, and create new ones. For a limited time, Once Upon a Family will be offering their recipe organizer for $25 and will also include a recipe box (inset picture above) for FREE (offer ends March 5, 2012). I’ll be giving one set (an album AND a recipe box) to 1 lucky winner. Check the end of this post to find out how you can win one!

Today, we’ll be showing you a recipe called pancit. Pancit is a Filipino noodle dish that my mom always prepared at least once a week when we were kids, sometimes even more frequently. It’s an easy, flavorful dish that feeds a large family on a budget and reheats beautifully in the microwave. And one thing to keep in mind about pancit is that every family has their own recipe, this just happens to be our family’s recipe.

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