In 1981, Mimi Wilson called her friend Mary Beth Lagerborg to tell her that she had just assembled 30 dinner entrees and frozen them. Mimi had an active family of five and wanted to save money, save time cooking, and have meals on hand for company.

“Why don’t you call the Denver Post and see if they want us to write an article about this?” Mimi proposed. Mary Beth thought Mimi had lost her mind, and suggest that Mimi call the Denver Post. She did, and the newspaper sent a reporter and photographer to do a Wednesday food feature. The resulting article generated so many phone calls asking how to do this and where to get the recipes that Mimi and Mary Beth wrote a book, initially titled Freeze and Save, (which Mimi’s husband dubbed Thaw and Chaw.)

In the years since, the book and recipes have been revised numerous times and the title settled on Once-a-Month Cooking. A Second book with completely new recipes is Once-a-Month Cooking Family Favorites. 

Along the way, Mimi and Mary Beth have spoken to thousands of people on what they call “the method,” with the goals of helping families save time and money, entertain in their homes simply, and, especially, of spending quality time together over a home-cooked meal. As the venerable grandmother of bulk cooking methods, Once-a-Month Cooking is the forerunner of numerous store-front businesses and spin-off methods that use the principles captured in the method that is Once-a-Month Cooking.