About

It all started when...

Hello, my name is Betsy and I live just north of Chicago with my husband and two sons.  I just love to cook and sew and share recipes.  I starting cooking as a child helping Mom in the kitchen.  Growing up in a house of 7, it was often my job to come home from school and start dinner before Mom got home from work.  As a teen I used to visit the library and check out cookbooks.  I'd come home and hand-write recipes that I wanted to try.  I've been doing this ever since, thankfully now with the use of a copy machine or computer!  I just can't pass up what I think would be a great recipe.  When I find one, I love to share. I hope you will like them too!

I got my first job at 15 working in a seafood market on the southside of Chicago along with my mother and sister.  To this day, I think of that job as my most favorite.  Waiting on customers and cooking their fish along with fun coworkers made the time fly.  I worked there until 17 and then I saw a job in the paper for a chef at a local banquet hall.  I decided to apply.  I guess I didn't realize it was odd for a 17 year old to apply for a chef job, but the owner took a chance on me and I learned a lot.  My parents decided to move to Wisconsin just outside of Green Bay.  My sister and I stayed in Chicago and shared our first apartment together.  I quickly learned that I needed a job that would pay the bills and the banquet hall job was not paying well, so I got a job in an office in the city and continued to work at the banquet hall on the weekends.  I knew I wanted to attend culinary school, but didn't have the means, so it wasn't until I was 31 years old did I make the decision.  After getting married, I attended Kendall Culinary School here in Chicago.  It felt great to go to school and deepen my love for cooking.  I studied both Professional Cookery along with Baking and Pastries.  It was at this time my husband and I decided to start a family, so I had to cut my schooling a little short and take on my most important job to date, being a mom.  Here I am a few decades later with our children in college and high school we are looking at what to do in our golden years.  Once we decide, I'll be sure to let you know.

I also started sewing as a child.  As my Mom would sew and I would beg to use her machine to make doll clothes.  I took sewing in high school and when I moved out my parents bought me a used machine and I have been sewing every since.  It wasn't until 1998 that I took my first quilting class.  When most people think about quilting, they think it's old fashioned, but it has come along way and it considered a form of art.  I urge you to check out the next quilt show when it comes to your town, you'll have a new appreciation of quilting.  Check out some of the quilts in the "Random Acts" tab above and you will see what I mean.  With my love of both sewing and cooking I came up with the name Quilt and Cafe.  Thank you for spending time with me.  I look forward to getting to know you and sharing both my love of cooking and sewing.