My Story

Hi everyone. I’m Mary Janet MacDonald from Port Hood, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada! Married 50+ years to Cecil and we have seven beautiful children and twelve grandchildren (from ages 3 to 23 years old). During the COVID-19 confinement in 2020, my daughter suggested I do a live-stream on a Sunday in March, 2020, and give a tutorial on how to make my much-loved family cinnamon rolls recipe. Thinking this would just be seen by my own family and a few friends and having never done live-streaming, and with no-one but myself to set it up - I went live from my personal Facebook account and demonstrated how to make my cinnamon rolls. The video went viral and the love received from people around the globe was overwhelming - the personal messages received touched my heart - people alone in their confinement needed a comforting distraction, people wanting to bake with their children, people who just wanted to watch, and not bake, but just listen to my ramblings, and some feeling they could connect with me and that I was a comforting presence. Due to the attention to my one little amateur video filled with technical glitches and little hiccups, I (and husband Cecil) were encouraged by our children to immediately create a Facebook page and to continue every Sunday afternoon to bring a recipe tutorial to this new-found audience - filled with little anecdotes and conversation and cups of tea and some of my favourite recorded music and even sometimes a live performance by son Mitchell (at a distance on our doorstep) or as we go along - some or all of the rest of our children and it has grown into lots of entertainers from around Nova Scotia and beyond. So a Facebook page was born called Tunes and Wooden Spoons (named by granddaughter Anna). From there - between our children and our grandchildren - they quickly secured domain names, Instagram, and YouTube accounts and a website - seeing that this was something that “Grandma” should do. Media attention was astounding and even a spot on CTVs Your Morning was the icing on the cake. So now I am happy to share with you the recipes in my Elm Tree recipe box shown in the cover image. Those images contain precious items that are special to me - the guitar for the singing that our family loves to share; the recipe box was a homemade gift one Christmas that Cecil and I did for the children filled with recipes old and new and passed down from grandparents; the cutting board is a homemade gift received from our daughter with the image of a lemon meringue pie recipe etched into its surface - the writing of my much-loved mother-in-law Marie - long since passed; a couple of my favourite CDs that I love to listen to as fiddle music fills my soul having taught Cape Breton stepdancing for many many years; a couple of much-used wooden spoons - reminding me of my love for baking, and the musical symbol for my family, and even the many times I ‘threatened’ our children with a wooden spoon when they were little and misbehaving; as well you’ll see a small crystal plate - a plate that was my mother’s who died when she was only 37 and left five children - I was 3; on the plate is “the cinnamon roll” that started this; also a mug filled with my favourite King Cole tea - with the island I love shown on the side - and made by a former dance student of mine, Kolten MacDonell; the 3 books - a craft I had made at Christmas for the kids (we do homemade crafts for Christmas) - painted and stamped with some popular Gaelic sayings - the trio shown here was a reject so I kept it for myself and all the seven given out to the children were done perfectly - thus I’m left with the reject but wanted to include it because I love the language of my ancestors but can’t speak it - but it reminds me of them; and finally - the fabric underneath it all is Cape Breton tartan - representing our beautiful island and so much of its history that paved my way on this earth. So - that is who I am, what I love, and it’s my story (although there is a lot more). Thank you for being on this journey with me.