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Hoffman Estates mom cooks from scratch and keeps baking healthy

Although Sonia Mims, of Hoffman Estates, has been cooking for thirty years, she is the first to point out that cooking and baking are learned skills.

“I haven't been good at it for 30 years, “she laughs. “I've improved.”

Practice is the key she suggests. “Trying different things, not following a recipe exactly.”

Sonia grew up in a large family and her mother loved to bake — a batch of 200 chocolate chip cookies was commonplace. “She never limited us — even with six kids, the cookies only lasted two days.”

Sonia often helped in the kitchen. It was her job to get out all of the ingredients.

“My mom was a real stickler. She made sure everything was perfect,” she said. “I've learned that I'm not going to make everything perfectly, but it's going to still be OK.”

This working mother of two boys likes cooking from scratch every night for her family, but she loves baking.

“We are dessert people. I make dessert almost every night. It's not like I have to take time out, it's just a part of what are we going to have today?”

The interesting thing is if you look closely at the recipes that Sonia shares with us today, you may notice that she uses whole wheat flour and less sugar than you might find in a typical sweet treat. Sonia is a cancer survivor and despite having a sweet tooth, cooking healthy is the priority.

“We still have sugar; I grew up as a Cookie Monster and I am still a Cookie Monster, but when I bake I always use less sugar than the recipe calls for. My family is accustomed to this and it still has enough sweet flavor.”

Sonia also never uses red food coloring; she uses beet juice as an effective natural dye.

She also uses beet juice in her luscious strawberry pie — a family recipe that is 100 years old.

“I prefer natural food — from the ground. Organic food is not out of reach if you know your prices. I can taste the difference. No high fructose corn syrup, no sodium nitrates — we only eat uncured bacon,” she says.

Sonia makes a half and half mixture of butter and canola oil for cooking and baking.

It is hardly surprising to hear that the Mims plant a garden every year. There's a strawberry patch, an herbal area and the serious vegetable plot — onions, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers.

“It's worth the work. It's always exciting to see the results. When one tomato plant yields 30 tomatoes, how can you not have a garden? When we have too much, we freeze it, or give it away to friends and neighbors.”

This generosity is a given in the Mims household, where gifts of strawberry jam, cookies, or invitations to dine are bountiful.

“I love the gift of hospitality. We don't entertain as much as we'd like to, but when we do I love to cook special dishes that we don't normally have.”

One favorite is a fruit salad made with plain yogurt and just a tad of brown sugar.

When it is her turn to provide a meal for her son's youth church group, she never considers taking the easy way out by ordering in.

“My brain doesn't work that way. I like to do a variety of pastas, and because I know a lot of kids don't like the sauce put on the pasta, I make a pot of sauce on the side. I give them rolls and, of course, homemade cookies. To me that's not work — it's all in what we've been gifted with.”

Aunt Clara's Strawberry Pie

Outstanding Oatmeal Cookies

Sunny Day Breakfast Quiche

  Cook of the Week Sonia Mims of Hoffman Estates with her sunny day breakfast quiche. Joe Lewnard/jlewnard@dailyherald.com
  Cook of the Week Sonia Mims of Hoffman Estates likes to cooks from scratch using natural ingredients. “Organic food is not out of reach if you know your prices. I can taste the difference,” she says. Joe Lewnard/jlewnard@dailyherald.com
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