About me

My passion is cooking - joy is eating wonderful, fresh food! Lucky me to take classes from Carmelita and cooking along side her in Italy and also at our home in California. My cookbooks are crowding each other, and one giant section is all Italian, then there is Spanish--with great Tapas, or Middle Eastern...it never stops.

I grew up in a wonderful, warm family. My mother's mother owned a small cafe/restaurant in Death Valley and I used to marvel at her perfect gravies! I would stand next to her and watch as she turned out the best, smooth, tastiest gravy I've ever eaten. I usually manage to duplicate the texture to my ultimate joy. My dad's mom made dumplings that my grandfather said were softer than an angel's breast. Also her chocolate cakes and fudge icing was exquisite! Everything she made and served she prepared with love.

My Great Grandmother was a fantastic cook and her stove/oven was one of those tiny little green and cream colored ancients! She would turn out seven layer cakes, freshly baked rolls and bread, wonderful tamale pies, and perfectly seasoned pot roasts! Savory and finger licking good food. But her fresh-out-of-the-oven homemade yeast rolls were to never be forgotten!!!

Mom was a fantastic cook, but doesn't cook much any more. My older sister and I have honed our skills and enjoy cooking for our families and crowds. I love making intimate dinners for two to six people. When a friend has a special occasion and I'm doing the cooking I make a menu with graphics, and if it is a foreign meal, also provide one as closely in the language as I can in addition to the one in English. Usually, that's Italian or French. Somehow the Middle Eastern languages just have me baffled. Imagine that.

I took a one day intensive cooking class at a professional cooking school in San Remy, France some years back and learned a lot there. When I was on my confit duck kick I took a class at the Culinary Arts in Laguna--Duck Four Ways. That was such fun! Guiliano Bugialli, Julie Sahni, whatever class I could snag at Sur La Table I'd sign up for.

My loving hubby thanks me every single night I cook for what I may call a simple dinner, and always says how wonderful it is. Except once, and I had to agree...! Sometimes it is what it is. Sometimes you try, sometimes you fail.

I have two food processors but find I prefer dicing, mincing and slicing by hand. It is like meditation. I will process purees, of course and I do use it to chop on occasion, but it is rare. I sit while I prep, and Carmelita turned me onto Global knives and I love them. I have three sets of knives in the kitchen, and NOBODY touches my Globals but me! When I am teaching a friend or friends of my daughter's I have plenty of room for us all to spread out and knives for everyone else to use.

I am really enjoying this website. So Cook, Eat, and Share with us.