Welcome, my dear. I'm Jibek Sooronbai kyzy, a daughter of Orto-Ayyl, a little village in the Talas valley where the road runs out toward the mountains. I grew up at my grandmother's elbow. My chong apa kept the stove going from October to April, her hands always in flour, and nobody ever left her table hungry.

A dastorkon is the cloth we women spread for guests. Before any real food arrives it is already full: bread, boorsok, dried apricots, walnuts, raisins, a bowl of sugar lumps for the tea. This blog is my dastorkon, laid out for you. I went to Talas for university and came to Chicago in 2009. Now I cook these dishes in a small kitchen by the lake, with my daughter Aruu stealing boorsok off the plate, whenever I miss my mother's house.

Some recipes are ours alone, like Iradi plov, which my Korean friends in Talas still tease me is "just risotto". Most we share with our Kyrgyz, Kazakh and Uzbek sisters across the borders, and where my family's way is different, I'll tell you. Pour yourself some tea. There's a new recipe every Wednesday and Sunday.