And Her Winning Ways

Elaine Edel has special reasons for writing under the pen name Winnie and naming her first book and her company, Winnie’s Winning Ways.

Her love for cooking goes back to her grandmother’s kitchen. She remembers her grandmother’s love for cooking and baking and the two of them making bread, buns and donuts together On many occasions she remembers going along to deliver some of this fresh baking to less fortunate neighbors.

Her mother sensed her daughter’s enjoyment for cooking and gave her plenty of opportunities to experiment with different recipes and ingredients. Those early positive experiences in the kitchen laid the foundation for a lifelong passion for cooking and sharing her knowledge and ideas with others.

She published her first cookbook in 1988. It was at this time that she decided to use part of her given name Winifred, calling herself Winnie in her writings. Her books share many recipes and ideas on being a winner in the home and with the family. Since then, she has published six more books and developed a soy crème powder that is distributed under the Winning Ways label. She is also a distributor of the Bosch Kitchen Machines.

Winnie started these business ventures to earn off-farm income but her greatest rewards are sharing ideas and products that help others learn new and Winning Ways to save money and prepare nutritious food.

Winnie and her husband Melvin Edel raised five sons on a grain farm near Morris, Manitoba. All the recipes in her books have passed the test of her family, which now inludes nine grandchildren.

Winnie grew up in a home where it was important to “stretch a dollar” and is an avid collector of economical recipes and money-saving tips on a variety of topics, including gardening, preserving, cooking and baking.

By the mid 1980s, when grain prices plummeted and interest rates escalated, her drawers were overflowing with recipes for limited budgets and diminishing time in the home and helpful money-saving hints.

With the support of her sister, Connie Schroeder, who offered to help with typesetting and design, Winnie published these recipes and hints in the book, Winnie’s Winning Ways.

She knew other farm women would appreciate the helpful information and the best way to reach her target audience was farmer’s markets, farm meetings and other farm events.

Winnie can be found at many farm shows in Southern Manitoba, selling her books, sharing ideas that are in her books and picking up ideas from others. The positive responses she is getting motivate her to write more books so that she can share more Winning Ways ideas and recipes.

Today, Winnies Winnings Ways series includes A Muffin a Day, Soy Satisfied, Eat More Whole Grains, Cooking Without Mom, From Your House to Ours, Carefree Catering and of course her first book, Winnie’s Winning Ways. The cookbooks spring out of years of preparing food in her farm kitchen for family, friends and large groups. Whenever possible she uses ingredients from the family gardens and farm.

These coil bound books, filled with tasty, nutritious recipes and easy instructions, are ideal for personal use, gifts, fundraising projects and resale. Eat More Whole Grains and Soy Satisfied have many recipes and hints of special interest to vegetarians and people who have allergies.

To increase consumption of soybeans in North America Winnie has developed a soy- crème powder, a brand new food product that uses the whole seed. This product is available on a small scale as a pure product or mixed with other ingredients to make a pancake/waffle mix, cookie and dessert mixes.

Winnie’s Winning Ways include more than cookbooks and products. Winnie and her family are community minded people in a small rural community and they know the value of supporting the church, community organizations and small business enterprises. Discounts for bulk orders make it possible for you or your community organization to sell the book and earn money.

What Others Have Said About Winnie: