Hi, I’m Sally!  My passion is cooking and I love to entertain. My friends often ask for recipes and ideas for parties, and I thought I would design a space where I could hopefully inspire others to make homemade meals for their family and friends, and then bring people together.

I have a large compilation of tried and tested recipes that will hopefully inspire you to try something new and expand your cooking repertoire.  My other passion is entertaining. There is something about bringing people together that really brings joy to my life. It reminds me to slow down and enjoy the company of all these wonderful people I know in my life.  I have compiled a lot of photos from my parties and have provided menus, recipes, time lines, organizing tips, and decorating ideas on how to pull it all together.  I hope it helps you with your meals and party planning.

I hope you enjoy this blog and please let me know if you have any questions.

Sally

A little bit about my background….. I had a dream fulfilled when I went to Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris for a year back in 1984 when it was still the charming original small cooking school that Julia Child attended in a little street off the Rue du Champ de Mars.  Madame Brassart was the 87 year old guiding force behind the cooking school and had been there since 1945.  She retired the year I graduated and soon after, the school was sold to the Cointreau family and moved in to a  much larger space and they even have translators in the classes now!  That was very unheard of in my day as the chefs spoke no English (except that is shit!)  so you had to have some command of the French language.  I feel so lucky to have had that experience in the old school.  The only machine we had was an ice cream machine and there was no dishwasher.  Just a poor old guy who did all our dishes and pots and pans.  Julia Child described Mme. Brassard as “a rather disagreeable owner”, but I found her to be very charming and she would often sit down to lunch with us and give us impromptu wine classes.  Maybe age mellowed her a bit!  It was a magical period in my life and incredible to be living in such a wonderful city and I loved every moment.  I shopped at my local farmers market on Mondays and Fridays, bought cheese from several great cheese shops, bought my bread at my neighborhood artisanal boulangerie, and meat at some of the best markets in town.  I learned a lot about really fresh food and what it was like to cook with fresh herbs and produce.  What I mainly learned at cooking school was basic cooking techniques and have applied it to all the various cultural foods I cook today.

After graduating from the Cordon Bleu, I moved to San Francisco and started catering with a friend I met at cooking school.  We had a great time, but decided it wasn’t something we wanted to continue.  18 hour days and no social life got pretty tiring very fast!

I was very involved for many years in the Junior League of San Francisco, and in 1998 was appointed as the Co-Chair for the cookbook the league was developing as one of their fund raising projects.  San Francisco Flavors was published by Chronicle Books and has raised lots of money for the various charities the league supports, an accomplishment I am very proud of.  I was also very happy that Alice Waters (my guru) wrote the forward for us.

Living in San Francisco for 18 years gave me the opportunity to experience fabulous restaurants and attend wonderful ethnic cooking classes to add to my repertoire. 

I have traveled extensively, and food has always played a major role in my trips.  I took some fun cooking classes in Bangkok, Singapore, Beijing and India which really helps me learn more about the cultures food and love going to local markets to see the wide variety of produce for inspiration and how they use it.

8 years ago, my husband and I moved back to the  Pacific Northwest where I grew up.  I love this beautiful area and am happy to be back and living on the lake again.  I work to travel and have a long list of places we want to visit. We’ve got to get cracking on it!