Welcome !

Food and wine are obviously two of my great loves in life! They bring people together and though I do tend to agree with the great Danish / American entertainer Victor Borge, that “the shortest way between to people is a smile” I will say this – nothing brings about a smile or irons out a wrinkle like a good meal! As I’m writing this I’m sitting with my belly full, on a tropical beach in North Queensland, Australia, listening to the old Disney song “The bare necessities” …. Life is greeeeat!

Why am I doing this, you might ask and I guess there are several reasons. First of I am a lot like Whinny The Pooh in that: ”I’d rather hear a story about me!” Secondly I love got inspired by the book by Julie Powell “Julie & Julia” where the author takes on the project of cooking her way through a French cooking book called “Mastering the art of French cooking”, writing about her experiences as she goes along. This idea so enthralled me that I just had to attempt something like it. I however will not cook my way through a particular cookbook but instead share some of my life and some of my best recipes along with it. If you read this and have any comments or opinions on any of it PLEASE do not hesitate to write and let me know what you think!

A little background on this new pet project of mine: I have been interested in cooking from I was quite young and so I have memories of myself cooking with my grandmother, on my fathers side, back when I was 5 or 6 years old, but it was not till I moved away from home and into a dormitory as a 19 year old student that I really learned how to cook. This came about simply because we used to take turns cooking and in doing so my fellow students would be subjected to my cooking on at least a fortnightly basis. They very soon decided that they had to teach me and so I’d join them in the kitchen in order to learn from them. Later on I meet Kim who became like a mentor for me. Kim is a great man and his love and friendship is one of the most precious gifts I have ever had – and lost. Kim is quite the chef and during our friendship he taught me more about life and people when I can possibly describe her. In the beginning of our friendship I was quite concerned with the fact that I ad little money and so were unable to make dinners for him, the way he did for me. Once after I voiced this concern to him, he told me this: When it comes to food, the one that stands out is this: I don’t care what you make, as long as it is honest. Whether you serve a Crème Brûlée or bangers and mashed is not important, as long as it is honest and does not pretend to be something it is not! I guess that is true about a lot of things in life! One of the very special things about Kim was that he used to have a lot of little sayings like that one, which I took in and adopted as my own. After meeting Kim and his good friend Torben, my cooking took off and since I have been cooking as much and as varied food as possible. Actually I have been so lucky that people have liked my cooking enough to ask me to cater for them at parties once in a while, something I enjoy a lot. In my day job I’m a Registered Nurse, and I do believe that I owe a lot of my ability to cook for great numbers of people to my training as a nurse! Nursing after all requires the ability to plan, to keep a level head, also if things go different when planed, and to have several balls in the air at the same time. Well enough talk for now. On to the food!