Hunny Mama Recipes: A Little Piece of Me for My Children
When I put together Hunny Mama Recipes, I kept thinking about my children. I wanted to leave them something they could always come back to. A way to recreate their favorite meals, remember our kitchen, and someday share those same flavors with their own families.
My love for cooking started with my mom. She is one of the greatest cooks I know, and her flour tortillas have been loved by everyone since I was little. To this day, there is nothing quite like them.
My mom comes from a family of 20 children. As one of the oldest, she helped my grandma, who made and sold flour tortillas from her home in Tijuana. My grandparents were from Guadalajara, Jalisco, and my mom was born in Nayarit before the family settled in Tijuana. Those places, along with her own sazón, shaped the food I grew up loving. Everything she makes has so much flavor.
As I got older, Mama Veronica, my mother-in-law, also taught me her way of cooking, especially her Nayarit style. Her cabbage soup became one of our household favorites, and my pozole carries a little of her influence, too. Over time, I brought those lessons together with my own tastes and little touches.
In my everyday cooking, I rarely measure. I add a little of this, taste, and add a little of that. For this book, I took the time to put those recipes into measurements so someone else could follow them. My children have always told me how much they love my cooking, and I wanted to make sure their favorites would be there whenever they needed them.
I also love learning. If someone shows me a way to bring more flavor into a dish, I’m happy to try it. This collection holds some of what the women in my life taught me and what I’ve discovered in my own kitchen.
The name “Hunny Mama” comes from what my grandbabies will call me. That makes this book even more meaningful to me. It connects the food I grew up with to the family traditions I hope will continue.
My hope is that, years from now, my children will open these pages, make something familiar, and feel a little closer to me. And if these recipes become favorites in your home, too, I’ll be happy knowing a little piece of our family’s kitchen has found its way into yours.
Belén Larios
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