Mcdonald finds her peace through cooking ... and sharing her gift with her customers

CLINTON - Colleen Mcdonald knows she will make her dreams come true, with cooking talent and the fire in her heart, despite numerous challenges she has faced in the past and present. 

Mcdonald makes weekly home-cooked meals, selling them to Clinton-area residents.  Each week, she releases a menu on Monday, with orders due by Thursday evening and ready by Friday afternoon.  While pick-up (at a location disclosed only to customers) is possible, the majority of her clients take advantage of the free delivery in the Clinton area.

The menu varies from week to week. Choices might include shepherd’s pie, beef wellington, shrimp scampi, stuffed meatballs, BBQ pork, loaded potato skins, pastrami subs, clam chowder, mac and cheese or chicken fried steak.  But two items can always be found on her menus - empanadas and galumpkis.

“I can cook anything,”  Mcdonald said.  “Cooking is my passion.  I can’t even explain how much I love to cook.”

Her beef and cheese empanadas is where it all started.  Eight years ago, she started going to Scooby’s Bar in Clinton “to sell only empanadas out of an aluminum pan for $2 each," she said.

Now there is at least one, but often two to four kinds of empanadas to select from each week.  Galumpkis are new, but Mcdonald says “everyone loves them.” They have been a runaway success since the first week she put them on her menu.

Mcdonald has been cooking since she was 16, completely self-taught.  She is originally from Clinton.  Although she spent time traveling “to many states and two countries," she returned and stayed because of her cooking and her health.

Mcdonald is open about her struggles with PTSD and anxiety, and how they affect her life and her cooking. 

“I could never cook in a restaurant,” she said.  “My anxiety would be through the roof” in such a high-pressure environment.

Mcdonald has four brothers, one of which is her twin; she was the only girl.  Her parents separated when she was 9.  Her mother abandoned her and brothers when she was 13 “and left us basically to fend for ourselves," she said.  The children were separated from each other, leading to poor outcomes for all of her brothers, except for one brother who already had a family of his own.

“I was devastated,” she said about the breakup of her family.  “My world felt empty and gray.”  It didn’t help that the relative she was placed with used her for free domestic labor.

As a result, Mcdonald has always had to be “very independent.”  

“All I needed was God, no one else.  He always and ever will be my number one,” she said, and cooking is forever her number two.

Cooking relaxes Mcdonald, keeping her in the moment and concentrating on her talent for making food.  It also allows her to express her creativity. 

“If I am not creative, then no one would order because, in my mind, if it’s too easy then they can make it themselves at home,” she said.  “Being more creative makes more customers.”

“I cook from my heart," she said.  “Cooking is my everything.  It’s all I have and will ever need.”

Mcdonald doesn’t play favorites and wouldn’t be pinned down about her dream meal to make, saying that it’s an “impossible ask” when she would like to someday make literally everything.

The only thing she doesn’t like to make is “crab rangoons,” which require “too much time” for a tiny amount of food.  She also goes by the adage, “don’t sell it if you can’t make it.”

“I have very honest customers,” she said.  “If they love or like it or don’t like it, I always want their input.”

Her business has significantly increased during the pandemic. 

“It really makes me feel good” to cook for people during COVID-19, she said. “I make the prices as low as I can” and then provides contactless, free delivery.  Sometimes 20 to 30 people order from her in a given week; other times it’s 45 to 100, all depending on what she makes.

She would like to hang up her car keys and own a food truck someday, preferably parked somewhere in Clinton.

“I will succeed,” she said.  “I don’t have a choice.”

Mcdonald can be messaged on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/1974greeneyes/ or you can find her menu posted to all the Clinton groups on Facebook and comment there.