Barbara Swell began her baking career in Martinsburg, WV, on January 19th, 1962, when she whipped up her first batch of sugar cookies from her 4-H Club Pack-and-Snack cookbook. She is the author of a very popular series of historic cookbooks, including Log Cabin Cooking, Take Two and Butter 'Em While They're Hot, Secrets of the Great Old-Timey Cooks, The Lost Art of Pie Making, and others. Barbara lives in Asheville, NC, with her husband and their three children.

"A little masterpiece of nostalgic cookery, Mama's In The Kitchen: Weird & Wonderful Home Cooking 1900-1950 showcases stories and recipes of how American women cooked their way through two world wars, food shortages, and the Great Depression. From Skewered Coconut Shrimp; Eggless, Milkless, Butterless Cake; and Aunt Sammy's Gingerbread with Cream Cheese Filling; to Toll House Cookies; Volcano Potatoes; and Chocolate Orange Crunchies, Mama's In The Kitchen is a superbly presented and nostalgic stroll down home-made culinary history. Enhanced further with chapters devoted to "Weird Little Sandwiches", "Foods That Wiggle", "No Way!"; "Health and Remedies"; "Household Hints"; a bibliography, and a superb little resource list for "Finding Vintage Cookbooks", Mama's In The Kitchen is a "must" for anyone who enjoys strolling down a "yesteryear" collection of culinary pleasantries." -- Midwest Book Review

"We loved this throwback to yesteryear – to a time when lack of money or ingredients didn’t stop Mama’s good old home cooked meals and desserts. Mama’s in the Kitchen gives us a nostalgic insight into how making do didn’t mean going without. Creativity was the name of the game and this book brings original recipes from the wonderful to the admittedly ever-so-slightly weird – just as the title promises! The book isn’t just a haven of recipes for history fans but brings words of wisdom from the mamas themselves as well as old poems and anecdotes preserving memories from days long gone. An absolute delight from beginning to end, Mama’s In The Kitchen (published by Native Ground Books & Music) is sure to bring a smile to your face." Make it Shabby online magazine, Feb 2015

"Two world wars and one Great Depression: hardly a recipe for happiness. But, in what initially seems like quite a slim volume, Barbara Sewell's collection of American recipes, plus snippets of social history, provided enough interest to keep 'The taster' happy during a two-hour train journey." - The Taster, Spring 2015.