About Me

I have been a gourmand all my life, from the time my grandfather fed me such delicacies as watermelon and olives  as a child (not together, thankfully!) My mom is a devoted lover of food and cooking, and she nurtured me early on to carry that torch with enthusiasm. I have never looked back.

Wikipedia lists a gourmand as a person who takes great pleasure in food. They also mention that it was confused with gluttony in French history, but with gluttony being included as one the Seven Deadly Sins and gourmandise being now a French pastime, the more positive connotation has prevailed 🙂

I take the principle of gourmandise (enjoying to the fullest) in all areas of my life. I thoroughly enjoy cooking for friends and family, and sharing new tastes around a communal table. I am also a Sommelier, having discovered that wine and all its history is equally as interesting and intertwined in culture as the food with which it is paired. When I learned of “terroir” (“a sense of place” in French, referring to food tasting differently depending on where it is grown) the garden became the passion that rounded out my circle of life.

My chef husband and I live on a little piece of Paradise, a place called Rabbit Hollow in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. The valley is teeming with fruit orchards, farm stands and vineyards. There are literally hundreds of wineries, and craft breweries and cideries as well as a lake that stretches the length of the valley and makes for possibly the best climate in Canada. It behooves us to enjoy the bounty that is grown and harvested here.

One of my best inspirations is my Chocolate Labrador, Freyja. She follows in a long line of “Brown Girls” – Chocolate Labs that have reminded me over and over again the magic of living in the moment. Those of you who read posts from earlier in my blog will see Ella, the magical creature that came before Freyja.

For over 30 years I have had the honour of accompanying these girls as they ate, ran through a meadow, and to swam on a sunny day… not to mention never missing the chance for a snuggle. If I play my cards right and remember everything these girls have taught me, I may come back as a Brown Girl in my next life…