Hi, my name is Melissa (Mel for short)!
And Adventures of Mel, or AoM, is my little piece of vintage recipe heaven on the Internet.
I’m the voice, author, recipe developer, and creator behind Adventures of Mel. I’m a former nurse turned food blogger, vintage dealer (The Vintage Honeybee), and cattle farmer. I’m a proud Missourian, and I especially love to bake, a skill I acquired from my mama and both of my grandmas in their farmhouse kitchens when I was just a girl.
Over the last 15 years, I’ve published over 400 recipes on AoM that hundreds of thousands of people enjoy every month. My work has been featured on Country Living, Taste of Home, BuzzFeed, Parade, Tasty, and Good Housekeeping.
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I live on a farm outside Mountain Grove, Missouri, with my husband Dan, our youngest (of 3 boys) Zeke, our dog Chuck, cat Molly, and a whole gaggle of farm animals, including cows, chickens, and barn cats. A few of my favorite things include wide open windows with fresh air pouring in, books (especially old cookbooks), White Mountain puzzles, and all things vintage/antique.
How It All Began
It started with my grandma’s recipe box, a stack of index cards stained with butter and filled with handwriting I’d recognize anywhere. Some of those recipes existed nowhere else. If I didn’t write them down, cook them, and pass them on, they’d just be gone. That’s really the whole reason this place exists: I don’t want the food that shaped my family and my community to disappear just because the people who made it aren’t standing in the kitchen anymore.
I’m not a trained chef. I’m a home cook who’s spent close to two decades developing, testing, tweaking, and making the dishes that mean something, the ones that show up at every holiday, every potluck, every family dinner, recipes like Grandma’s lemon cake and Dad’s banana ice cream. I’m also mom to three boys (and grandma to one in the oven, no pun intended). This means everything I’ve made and continue to make gets the most honest review panel there is.
My Goal for You
I believe that food is a way to not only connect with each other, but a way to love your people and create memories that will live forever in the hearts and minds of those we love. Even when we’re gone, a recipe like Grandma’s chocolate cookies has the power to be timeless, and can be shared across generations for years to come.
What I want for you is simple: I want you to find the recipe you’ve been missing, the one you can’t quite remember exactly right, or the one you never got to ask for before it was too late. And I want you to make new ones, too, the kind your own people will be nostalgic for one day.
My blog is filled with vintage recipes you can share with the ones you love. You’ll find recipes you can take to your next potluck or church supper (like funeral potatoes), ice cream social, holiday party, family gathering, or even make for Sunday dinner.
One of my favorite reader comments of all time comes from Lynn, after she made and shared my blueberry delight recipe with her family. This pretty much sums up why I do what I do.
“Just wanted to let you know that you helped me find a lost recipe of my mother’s. This blueberry dessert is a favorite recipe that my mother used to make for us all (6) children and my Dad who will be turning 90 this December 2019. Mom passed away in Jan. 2016 and no one in the family could find this loved recipe. So I’ve been searching for almost a year. I am her oldest daughter. I finally came upon your recipe and said this is the closest I can come to Mom’s recipe from memory. I’m home visiting my Dad ( in the Chicago area) and quite a few of my siblings. I decided to make it and OMG my Dad, and my siblings have gone crazy, saying I found Mom’s lost recipe. Needless to say I have made this for almost everyone in the family. It has been a HUGE success and I can’t thank you enough. I look forward to following you on Pinterest and hope I can share a recipe or two with you soon. God bless you, you don’t know how happy you made my family.” – Lynn
Some of my favorite recipes to make and enjoy with family are chocolate chip cookies, my mama’s meatloaf recipe, and ice cream of all kinds, especially my dad’s old-fashioned vanilla ice cream.
Breakfast is super popular with my readers, as well; a popular reader favorite, both on my site and on YouTube, is this delicious French toast casserole.
And Lastly…
When it comes to the recipes you find on this blog, I only share what I truly do like or love, whether it’s a recipe, a product or brand that I cook with or enjoy using, etc.
If you have an old recipe you’re desperately trying to find and would like to see me develop and recreate it, or if you have questions, feel free to email me at me*@*************el.com. I’m always happy to chat with my readers and answer any questions you may have.
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