Marie Achkarian, my grandmother, was born in Kessab, Syria in the 1920’s. Kessab is a little village in Syria. There the family was a close net group because all they had was each other. She had a sister and four brothers. As my grandmother grew and became a young lady she had to learn how to become a housewife and to manage the house. She wanted to have a big family of her own so, she got married and had five kids. She had to learn how to prepare great food for her family so they could grow into happy healthy children. Her cooking came about when she had a family of her own. Like many mothers before her, taught her the value of good cooking and healthy recipes to follow for generations to come.