Several people have asked how I acquired my cooking and photography skills along with other questions regarding
my recipes website.
First and foremost I cannot take credit for anything.
My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the One who gave me any outstanding skills or gifts I may
possess and without Him I would be nothing.I can do all things through Christ who
strengthens me". Philippians 4:13.
I thoroughly believe this and you will see this is true as you read my background.
What is my culinary background?
The culinary skills I possess are self-taught I have no formal training.
I am a simple housewife and great-grandmother who has developed a deep love for good tasting food,
French and Northern Italian cuisine being my favorite, along with enjoying accompanying wine.
I take great pleasure and thought into thinking of different ways of presenting my creations in a
pleasing and unusual manner. This desire grew from trying to please our grown children
when they came to our home for special family dinners. My children have
excellent culinary skills far beyond what I had at their age.
Over the past few years through trial and error, I have developed a style of putting
together several courses for elegant dinner parties. It wasn't always that
way however. My 3 children will tell you when they were growing up I was a
terrible cook. I never had the desire or the time to improve.
One of the secrets to my success that is most important as well as basic is to use
the best quality fresh ingredients in any recipe. This will assure top results.
All my recipes have been tested and tried before they are posted to my website, I want all of them
to be top quality for fine dining enjoyment and maintaining a high standard of
excellence.
How did I start my website?
The computer skills I possess are self-taught I have no formal training.
My son-in-law suggested I start my own website featuring my recipes. I
knew nothing about how to get started, I barely knew how to turn a computer on and off
or use email.
I started by using "Microsoft Word" to make a rough draft design of how I thought
my website should look as well as other ideas that came to mind that I wanted to incorporate.
From there I hired a young man with web design skills who came to our home. He transferred my
design to a simple easy to use website program called "Microsoft
FrontPage". He then helped me register my website
name and hire a host who would put everything on the worldwide web. From
that point, he told me I was on my own - I never saw him again.
Being a novice, the problems I encountered were basically solved by
asking my questions on a search engine. I knew nothing about HTML coding
(I didn't even know what that was) which was not necessary with Microsoft
FrontPage. However, I soon learned there were some things that needed to be edited.
Through trial and error I learned how to put the right coding on my web pages.
Where did I learn my food styling
and photography skills?
The food styling and photography skills I possess are self-taught I have no formal training.
There are hundreds of food recipe sites on the web. I wanted a unique and interesting visual
website other than just written text. Everyone enjoys looking at pictures of recipes, so I
purchased a digital camera with the help of my son-in-law who was a wedding
photographer at the time.
I was never familiar or even good at taking pictures. My son-in-law suggested I study
food magazine photos to gain insight on how to set up props and take top quality interesting photos.
He installed a Photoshop program on my computer and showed me how to put the pictures on my website.
Through much trial and error, I soon developed my own ‘signature’ (style) on how to best show off my recipe
creations and to capture them with my camera. Each time I make a new
recipe, I take several photos from different camera angles, sometimes using different
props, color combinations, plates and garnishes to set up the shot until I am
satisfied then I publish it to my website.
How often are my recipes updated?
I try to make at least two new recipes each month for my site, sometimes more,
sometimes less. If you are interested, I have a feature on my home page,
New Recipes This
Month
showing the latest creations you can check out.
Where do I live?
I moved from Clackamas, Oregon USA, to Tucson, Arizona in 2005 for a warmer climate.
Thank you for visiting my website,
I hope you like my recipes and will try those that interest you to share them with your dinner guests.
Bon appetit,
Peg
- Recognition -
