MONROE - Laura Winters loves to play in the kitchen.
So the Monroe woman is going to open a store Oct. 4 that will let her do just that.
Winters and her husband Joey bought the building which used to house the Wooden Spoon on the north side of Monroe's downtown Square.
The store's name comes from an Australian song Winters used to sing to her daughter.
The store will feature a variety of unique food items, including a line of Stonewall Kitchen foods and kitchen products. Winters will also carry rubs, dips, marinades, brines, organic spices and spice kits, gluten-free flours and an array of ready mixes.
Other gift items will round out the corners of the store, including homemade, natural ingredient pet treats, like pot stickers, mini burgers with french fries and cookies, look too good for the dog to eat and a hot new item in the country is the line of black and pink, breast-cancer awareness T-shirts, "Save the Ta-Tas," geared toward young women.
But the excitement for Winters comes from her plans to include a stove right in the store where she can play to her heart's content, using the ingredients she sells.
She's eager to try Stonewall Kitchen's raspberry peach champagne jam as a glaze on turkey or ham.
"People get nervous about cooking. It hasn't been long ago since I learned to jump," she said about her creative cooking. "If you can learn to play with it, it takes the fear out of it."
Winters' in-store cooking will be available for sampling. She is also looking to stay open late some nights, so customers can come in for food sampling and exchange recipes.
The idea is to create a reminiscence of "Grandma's kitchen," complete with the aromas.
Winters said she is a firm believer in families coming together every night to sit down for supper and just talk. She also encourages having kids in the kitchen.
"(Mine) have so much fun in the kitchen, even if it's just making cereal," she said. Winters' children are ages 16, 7 and 6.
Some of Kookaburra's food kits will be geared toward getting kids involved in making their own healthy foods. For example, one pizza kit includes a small rolling pin, pizza pan, flavored sauce and flour, and a rhyming recipe.
Winters doesn't like complicated recipes, with long lists of ingredients and steps. She focuses on quick and easy recipes and healthy eating.
Winters delved into creative cooking as a need; her 6-year-old daughter has juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.
She learned to cook with less processed foods for a more natural diet that doesn't interfere with medications and the body's natural processes.
In parents' support groups, Winters said she found more and more mothers seeking networks and a local supplier of natural foods as a way to meet their children's sensitivities to so many things. Some parents drive to Madison or Chicago to find the foods Winters will carry in Kookaburra's.
Winters also learned many tricks to cooking while providing daycare for six years in her home before moving to Monroe.
"There are so many ways to make broccoli good," she said. "You can't just bury it in cheese all the time."
So the Monroe woman is going to open a store Oct. 4 that will let her do just that.
Winters and her husband Joey bought the building which used to house the Wooden Spoon on the north side of Monroe's downtown Square.
The store's name comes from an Australian song Winters used to sing to her daughter.
The store will feature a variety of unique food items, including a line of Stonewall Kitchen foods and kitchen products. Winters will also carry rubs, dips, marinades, brines, organic spices and spice kits, gluten-free flours and an array of ready mixes.
Other gift items will round out the corners of the store, including homemade, natural ingredient pet treats, like pot stickers, mini burgers with french fries and cookies, look too good for the dog to eat and a hot new item in the country is the line of black and pink, breast-cancer awareness T-shirts, "Save the Ta-Tas," geared toward young women.
But the excitement for Winters comes from her plans to include a stove right in the store where she can play to her heart's content, using the ingredients she sells.
She's eager to try Stonewall Kitchen's raspberry peach champagne jam as a glaze on turkey or ham.
"People get nervous about cooking. It hasn't been long ago since I learned to jump," she said about her creative cooking. "If you can learn to play with it, it takes the fear out of it."
Winters' in-store cooking will be available for sampling. She is also looking to stay open late some nights, so customers can come in for food sampling and exchange recipes.
The idea is to create a reminiscence of "Grandma's kitchen," complete with the aromas.
Winters said she is a firm believer in families coming together every night to sit down for supper and just talk. She also encourages having kids in the kitchen.
"(Mine) have so much fun in the kitchen, even if it's just making cereal," she said. Winters' children are ages 16, 7 and 6.
Some of Kookaburra's food kits will be geared toward getting kids involved in making their own healthy foods. For example, one pizza kit includes a small rolling pin, pizza pan, flavored sauce and flour, and a rhyming recipe.
Winters doesn't like complicated recipes, with long lists of ingredients and steps. She focuses on quick and easy recipes and healthy eating.
Winters delved into creative cooking as a need; her 6-year-old daughter has juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.
She learned to cook with less processed foods for a more natural diet that doesn't interfere with medications and the body's natural processes.
In parents' support groups, Winters said she found more and more mothers seeking networks and a local supplier of natural foods as a way to meet their children's sensitivities to so many things. Some parents drive to Madison or Chicago to find the foods Winters will carry in Kookaburra's.
Winters also learned many tricks to cooking while providing daycare for six years in her home before moving to Monroe.
"There are so many ways to make broccoli good," she said. "You can't just bury it in cheese all the time."