Welcome to my Kitchen

Hello to everyone who is visiting here for the first time, as well as old friends who visit daily. Many of you found my site through the Sacramento Bee's Taste section. Some are here through links from other blogs. No matter your entry path, you are probably here because you love and appreciate food... or you're stalking me... ;)

Even if we have nothing else in common, we all share a desire, a hunger to eat. We all NEED food in order to live, function, operate, think.

For some, food and meals are like a routine and it really does not matter much what it is comprised of as long as it is palatable. Define palatable, though. :)
For the more sustenance-fascinated, meals are an event... not only a backbone to life, but

a key to heritage and tradition (Louisiana creole and southern food come to mind)...

a photograph of a memory (my great-grandmother's divinity)...

a favorite dining establishment (not even what you had to eat at the time, but the people you were with that make the time spent so precious)...

a source of pride (every cake I make/decorate or recipe I devise validates my purpose)...

a topic of hours of discussion and debate (foie gras ban).

What is food to you?

For me it is something I use to make other people happy.
This picture is pretty funny... I guess I have always been a food blogger of sorts... I have been taking photos of my creations for years now. Excuse the blurry shot, but here is the first thing I ever made from scratch. I was about eight years old, and I did it all by myself. It was a gift to my mom for Mother's Day. I have been baking ever since.

Using currant jelly (to glaze the strawberries) when currant jelly wasn't cool...

Welcome to my kitchen...