Harriet Nichols Monroe is a writer, photographer, chef and former business owner.  Her self-published “Grandma’s Home Bakery” is homage to the grandmother who taught her as a young child to bake and feel at home in the kitchen.  It includes many traditional recipes that have been passed down in the family for generations.  It also includes her modernization of these recipes and new variations on flavors and uses.  For example, the first recipe in the book is traditional white bread and the last is a variation on that recipe to make marvelous pecan sticky buns.  The cookbook is ideal for anyone wanting to learn to bake bread, cookies and cakes.  It is perfect for teaching children and features many of the author’s own photographs illustrating method and technique.

Current projects in development include the story of her father’s first attempt at retirement and the cat that made change possible.  The working title is “The Retirement Cat” and it is a record of love and rescue and the discovery that transformation is possible even late in life.  It is a children’s story for adults.  The second project is a family history drawing upon the many boxes of photographs and documents accumulated by generations.  The project is developing as a timeline of four families and the local, national and international events that shaped their lifetimes.  The story will span 5 generations from 1830 through 1950.  The task includes cataloging and preserving hundreds of photographs and documents and research.  It may take some time to complete.