Home Cooking with Regina Kenner

We hear today from Regina Kenner, Cancer Navigator for Mary Washington Healthcare and mother of two grown children. If you’d like to participate in our Home Cooking feature, e-mail me.

Name: Regina Kenner

In a couple of sentences, tell us who you are and why you cook.

First and foremost, I am a wife and mother of 2 adult children. I have a very rewarding nursing career

at Mary Washington Healthcare where I work as the Cancer Navigator. I cook to balance my work with

my home life. I love to create a meal that brings my family together to enjoy.

Uncomplicated, comforting, satisfying

From my parents: Growing up, my Mom cooked during the week, but on the weekends, my Dad took

over the kitchen. Mom grew up during the depression in a family of 10 children. Cooking chores were

assigned mainly to her older sisters. She was assigned household cleaning responsibilities. Therefore,

her meals were simple and not always very ‘inspired”. We often joked that our house was so clean,

you could eat off the floors, if only she cooked something we really wanted to eat. Dad was the son of

Italian immigrants. His style of cooking was rich with flavors and textures. I make a big batch of a fairly

close version of his spaghetti sauce about every 8 weeks and freeze meal size portions for an ‘anytime’

meal. Unfortunately Dad passed away from cancer at age 49 and many of his best recipes were never

written down.

I love cookbooks that are a compilation of recipes….church or community organizations that ask for

contributions from their members.

I’ve been thinking about what I want to prepare for our family Christmas dinner. We will gather a

little early in December this year while our son is home visiting from Denver. I want to make a roast

tenderloin of beef…..it’s always a crowd pleaser.

Pasta, but of course!!

A good sharp knife

We love breakfast for dinner. Eggs, sausage (turkey sausage, when I can slip it by my husband), English

muffins and grapefruit.

Chicken and dumplings. I’ll season up a small roasting chicken and let it cook a few hours. Then I’ll

make a gravy from the stock, shred half the chicken and simmer, make a dumpling dough and plop it on

top and cook until they are nice and fluffy…..mmmm.

Macaroni and cheese…it doesn’t spill in the car.

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