"I always enjoyed cooking food for my family," Stoner said. "There were no picky eaters at our house."
Her interest in food, she said, began at a young age.
"When I'd visit various friends and their mothers would treat us to cookies, I'd ask for the recipe. Now when I see some of those recipes, I think of good times I've had," Stoner said.
Stoner also took five years of home economics in school "and enjoyed every minute of it. Miss Hower was a wonderful teacher and I owe her a lot of credit."
Stoner's mother, Anna Seibert, especially liked it when her daughter would come home from school and make something she had made in class that day.
Throughout the years, Stoner always enjoyed entertaining.
Christmas is her favorite holiday dinner, which usually consisted of turkey and "the works." She also enjoyed making cookies and candies at that time of year.
"There can be so much satisfaction in just cooking. I was 91 years old in May and still do all my own cooking and have people in for dinner. I love to try new recipes," she said.
She said when she couldn't sleep, she'd either look at recipes, crochet or cook.
Stoner passed on her love of cooking to her three sons, all of whom are excellent cooks.
The oldest son, Michael, had more than 400 cookbooks in his collection at one time. His kitchen was featured in Bon Appetit magazine.
A granddaughter, Marley Wong, has her own restaurant in the State College area.
Not long ago, Stoner's youngest son, Steve, told her she should have written a cookbook so her six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren could have the recipes they liked when they grew up.
Then, on a trip to Vermont to visit Michael, he gave her a ream of paper to get started.
"I started copying recipes and then had a terrible fall outside my apartment and had my arm in a sling," Stoner said. "I lost my enthusiasm."
But when Michael and his wife came to visit her and asked her how the cookbook was coming along, she told them it wasn't.
"They decided the only way the cookbook would come to fruition was if they came for a three-day weekend here and bring their typewriters and scanners," she said.
What they couldn't finish in three days, they took home to complete.
"I collected the recipes (including some of her mother's recipes) and Michael compiled it," she said.
Although she still had no intention to publish the cookbook, after some prodding she decided to go ahead with it "and I'm glad we did."
Stoner picked out pictures that her grandchildren had never seen to add to the cookbook pages.
Michael went to Spaulding Press to publish "Dot's Delights" in July.
For more information about the cookbook, contact "The Grocery Guy" at imthegroceryguy@comcast.net
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