WELCOME

I have never written a blog before (but have been in the writing industry for over 10 years), so this is all new to me, but this is a space where I’d like to share a part of what makes me happy and what makes me, me. On that note, what does one decide to write about and begin this journey? I am not sure, but I wanted to start a food blog to cover a variety of topics about all the things I love including: food, cooking, baking, food styling and food photography. This idea has been in the works for some time for me but I wasn’t sure where to start so I just decided today I’d give it a go.

I want to start by sharing a little about myself and who I am. I am Deborah, I was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I was born the youngest of 6 kids and I have one older sister and four older brothers who prepared me for anything in life (believe me I have heard and seen it all). I grew up with the same few meals for lunches and dinners, as we didn’t have a lot of variety on food choices as kids due to there being so many of us and not a lot of money to put on fresh ingredients on the table. Needless to say all of our plates were always cleared at the end of a meal and nothing was wasted. My Mom (who I will be writing about in later blogs), used a lot of coupons and had a very strict budget she would adhere to at the grocery store. My siblings and I would bake with my Mom over the years and cook as well. This was something I always enjoyed doing with her.

Many years later, I started to get an allergy to dairy and this allergy had stuck with me for most of my life and now I haven’t had dairy in almost 20 years! Between my dairy allergy and an antibiotic that I was given when I was a child for pneumonia, I had to rapidly change my eating habits and choices quickly. While many other kids would be able to have pop, I would have to stir mine to remove the carbonation, and I would not be able to have many sugary snacks because they contained dairy (dark chocolate was my go-to). Over the years, I realized that all the processed food I had been eating as a kid was not as delicious as the food that came from the source. I grew a new appreciation for this and this became more and more part of the food journey I was on.

Moving ahead to another few years down the road in my life, I was in Greece on travels and got a parasite there and was like anyone very sick from it. When I eventually got back to Canada, I was seen by many specialists to correct my gut that was no longer functioning properly. I was labelled to have different conditions and I was put on very strict diets and was told my gut may never recover. I decided to not take this for an answer and decided to go back to a very basic diet to help my gut recover, the best way I knew how and it did eventually. This diet contained fish, chicken, natural vegetables and fruits and breads. I cut out all processed foods, acidic foods, and many others. I started cooking very clean and healthy food and this changed everything for me. I started to learn new recipes from scratch, new ways to cook and I would host meals for my friends. This part of me never stopped, even to this day.

This has been a big part of my food journey and even after all that (gut health, dairy allergy), I had other obstacles get in my way. I found out in the more recent years, some times after I got married and had my two kids (who I will also get more into this in other blogs), was allergic to durum wheat, and soy. So again, I had to find new and innovative ways to cook around this and I have! Even with all that happening, I wouldn’t change anything. I have really learned to appreciate food for what it is, love eating it, love experimenting, and love finding better and easier ways to cook without these ingredients. I believe it has made me healthier and a better cook.

I know this seems like a long story and it is, but it is mine and it is all of these parts that have lead me here. I want to share more in each of my posts about all the components of food and food photography I love. With that said, I want to share a dairy-free lasagna (see the next blog). This is something I had told my husband I hadn’t had in so many years because it was loaded with cheeses. He helped me to find a way to feed this dairy-free lasagna desire I was having and I must say this recipe is so delicious and does just that!

Thanks for reading and being part of my food blog journey!

-Deb