I was born in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, the heart of the South’s richest history, and  into an amazing mash up of French West Indies mixed with Carolina seafood and fresh produce known as Low Country cuisine.

From Friday dining out of some of the finer offerings of Peninsula Charleston via a buy one get one free coupon book offered by the local radio station, to Saturday blue crab boils and fried Atlantic gray shrimp, to Sunday ham and squash casserole, I was taught to always feast with my eyes first and then my other senses.  My family, though of Irish and French background, attended Charleston’s annual Greek festival on Mother’s Day weekend from the time I was three.  It was really there at Middleton Place Plantation where my passion for food began as I gazed upon the rotisserie lined with chickens, the moussaka, the stuffed grapeleaves  (dolmades), and piles of tiny fried dough (loukoumades) drizzled in honey.

My father taught me to plan adventures starting out with weekends in the marsh inlets catching blue crab on a string tied around a chicken neck and a weight, followed by beach time body surfing, shell hunting, and sunbathing.  As I got older, we drove up to Table Rock, South Carolina and began camping, hiking, and trout fishing.  It was good to catch your own dinner and cook it simply with butter and lemon in tinfoil over an open fire.  We frequented the Smokey Mountains and Blue Ridge Mountains and even spent a few months in Colorado.

Soon after I graduated high school, I met my true love, Tony.  We married and started a family, and through industrial construction, have lived and explored all the coastlines of the United States.  Tony was lucky enough to be born Italian, Sicilian actually.  As it turned out, I had been fascinated by the boot and the ball and the colorful food since I was a small child.

In 2001, Tony and I embarked on our first trip to Italy.  We planned and mapped a 19 day journey beginning in Venice and ending in a 22 hour layover in Paris.  We have been fortunate to reconnect with his Sicilian cousins and have been to Italy a total of seven trips with many more ahead.  We spent 12 days in Provence just last year celebrating each other and our 31 years of marriage.

I enjoy all the color and excitement of travel.  I hope that I can ignite the flame of wanderlust in others to set out now for a beautifully prepared meal in New Orleans, a great bar crawl in Charleston, or hiking in Sicily’s grand canyon.