AUBURN - When Denise Tyrell was a little girl, she loved to bask in the kitchen and bake with her grandmother. So, it really is no surprise that she grew up to become a professional baker, taking all of her grandmother's favorite recipes, as well as a few of her own creations with her.

"I was lucky that my grandmother lived just down the road from us," Tyrell said. "I was able to see her on a daily basis. She was always in the kitchen baking. It was something that I just loved to do with her."

Tyrell owns and operates Mama D's Baked Goods, a home baking company that she started three years ago out of her home. She supplies many area restaurants and private citizens with her home baked pies, cookies, muffins and other goodies.

"I have my own recipes for the muffins and chocolate chip cookies," Tyrell said. "A lot of the other recipes, such as my molasses and sugar cookies were passed down from my grandmother."

Like Tyrell, family recipes are an heirloom tradition passed down through the generations containing secret ingredients and often written on 3 by 5-inch recipe cards.

The contents of the family heirloom recipe box is considered priceless. Generation after generation of family members add their own favorite recipes to the box to be handed down to the next.

Tyrell keeps all of her recipes in a recipe book to be passed on to her own daughters someday.

"I keep the book put away because it contains all of my secret ingredients," Tyrell said. "I don't want them to be getting out."

Shawn Brown, of Locke, looks forward to Tyrell's chocolate chip cookies and cinnamon buns each week at the Locke Farmer's Market, where Mama D is on hand with her home baked goodies.

"Last week I wanted another cinnamon bun, but she had left before I could get another one," Brown said. "I just love how soft her cookies are too. They are comparable to the store bought -but even better."

Though not all family recipes are turned into a profession, there is something about grandma's down-home cooking that brings a sense of childhood to us all.

"I can remember my grandmother, at 90 years old still going at it," Tyrell said. "She would sit at the table and peel fruit while I helped to can. No matter how warm it was, she would always have her sweater on and the sleeves would be dripping with juice. She was something."

For Barb VanHorn, of Auburn, her grandmother's infamous sugar cookies are always a hit with her own grandchildren.

"My grandmother had gotten the recipe from her own grandmother," VanHorn said. "I grew up eating them, my children grew up eating them and hopefully their children will as well. When I know that the children will be coming over, I make sure to make a batch. They just love them."