The Unfussy Cook

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About The Unfussy Cook

Mark and me, Key West

Hello there! My name is Becky, and I'm The Unfussy Cook.

I suppose when I retired I never expected to be putting myself back to "work" by writing a recipe blog, but that's what happened in late 2021. Turns out, it's a job-not-a-job I really enjoy!

And in 2023, I decided to take this whole blogging thing a little more seriously.

My husband, Mark, and I lived in the Chicago suburbs and worked until our late 50's, when we retired and planted ourselves in Costa Rica on the Pacific coast, in the little village of Ostional. During our working careers, I worked in admin and accounting (for the last 20 years in labor union benefits), and Mark was an electrician.

I've been cooking since I was a kid, and I've always enjoyed it and gotten great satisfaction when my food is a hit. My mom was a really good cook, and the very first thing she taught me to make was Welsh Rarebit. Her dad's mother was full-on Welsh, and whenever grandpa came to stay with us, Mom always made "Welsh Rabbit" for him at least once. She stood me on a chair in front of the stove and had me melt the cheese in milk, showing me how to stir properly so it wouldn't scald.

Once I started working, cooking was mainly relegated to the weekends. But now that I'm retired, I'm happy and busy working in the kitchen, perfecting new recipes and making the old family favorites. And loving every minute of it.

So many old family recipes to share!

One of my retirement tasks was to digitize my mom's recipe collection for the rest of the family (I have two brothers and one sister, and five nieces and nephews), which I did. Thrilled to run across recipes that had been in the family since forever, I started making them all. And at that point I decided to share them with the world, along with other recipes I'd been working on now that I finally have time to devote to it.

The Unfussy Cook recipe blog is the result. My hope is that you find many, many recipes here that will become family favorites for you, too!

Some facts about me..

  • I grew up in small towns in the Midwest: Illinois, then Minnesota for a few years during those awkward tween years, then back to Illinois. I consider Fairbury, Illinois, where I attended junior and senior high school, as my home town.
  • Two mornings each week I volunteer at Sibu Wildlife Sanctuary, mostly helping with bookkeeping and administrative tasks and tending the vegetable garden. It's truly a rewarding experience.
  • Mark and I don't have children, but we do have three dogs (Henry, Coco and Trudy) and two cats (Banjo and Scout) who manage to be both a joy and a pain at the same time 😉
  • I've been working on my family tree since 1988, and genealogy is my favorite pastime. I can't claim Mayflower ancestors, but I can claim Jamestown, Virginia, which was settled in 1607.
  • When I was a kid, I wanted to be either an archaeologist or a private detective. I think that's how/why I landed in the genealogy-addict basket.
  • Aside from cooking and genealogy, I also enjoy quilting in my spare time.
  • My favorite book is To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, then Gone With the Wind (and its sequel, Scarlet).
  • My favorite movies are A Good Year, The Descendants, The Help, The Color Purple, Under the Tuscan Sun, and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
  • I can't decide which crush of mine is bigger, Matthew McConaughey or George Clooney.
  • I've always been terrible at sports and I don't care.
  • In my dreams, I sing exactly like Julie Andrews.