Hello and Welcome to my Website!
My name is Valentina (Valya is my nickname).
A food blogger, recipe developer, photographer, editor, video creator, and author behind Valya’s Taste of Home website. I am sharing family-proven tasty recipes with step-by-step photos and videos.
I'm a mom of ten children (ages 24 - 8) and a grandma to Lucas and Benjamin. I come from a family of ten as well. I moved from Ukraine to the United States of America with my parents and some of my siblings when I was a child.
My younger siblings are first-generation Americans. After graduating from High School, I went to Dental School and then was blessed with a job in a beautiful dental office.
Being the oldest meant spending a lot of time in the kitchen cooking alongside my mom. And I learned a lot from her. Sadly, my mom passed away very shortly after I got married. But her passion— cooking — did not. Passing on my mom's recipes that I have loved and learned from her has been an incredibly meaningful task and passion for me as well. Especially making them modernly available to the rest of my siblings.
One of my sisters, Nina, kept telling me for a long time, "You cook so well, making delicious and presentable together feel so simple and homey, you should really have your own blog."
And that meant a website and all the techy stuff that comes with it. Creating a website was not the first thing on my mind. I wasn't agreeing to it for a while. First of all, I'm not a professional photographer. Second of all, I'm no computer engineer, as I thought that's what is practically required for website management. There was a good reason that I hesitated for a bit, it's not easy at all.
Turns out it's pretty involved, but also a fun learning experience. I used to tell my patients at work that technology is great when it works, but when it gives you problems ... I'm completely lost. But as blogging depends on it, I gave it a go and discovered that I enjoy it.
Techy side aside, the amazing recipes and delicacies I'm willing to share with you (with an emphasis on clean cooking) truly are scrumptious, simple, and 100% craveable! And here, on my blog, you will find family-proven delicious homemade meals, made with extreme cleanliness, beauty, and passion, in your very own kitchen!
Since the beginning of this food recipe website in July 2014, it has grown into a place that many of you return to over and over for delicious recipes. It makes me so happy to see your photos and read your comments about your experience with my recipes. And reading other articles and pages. So, thank you kindly for joining me on this journey here, it really means a lot to me!
In 2018 I created another website. On my second website, I blog about gardening, farming, recipes out of homegrown produce, gluten-free and keto recipes, cleaning, organizing, and crafting. You are welcome to check out the Fields to Feasts website as well!
The advertisements and affiliate links on Valya's Taste of Home website are financial help and support to our family. The site does require a lot of time to keep up as constant work in progress, so I truly appreciate you looking at and scrolling page by page of this food blog website. I hope you find it helpful and supportive of your cooking and baking journey as well.
Thank you for stopping by and I wish you many sweet and delicious days ahead! 🙂
