I was born and raised in New York. I am the youngest of three children, a mother of three and grandmother. Having a mother and grandmother born and raised in the south, food was a part of our family and culture. My fondest memories were learning to cook from the two of them. We would often share meals as one big family. I also used to travel with them and spend days at street festivals tasting as much as possible. This influenced the way I would spend time with my children. I come from a multi-cultural family so holidays include meals from a variety of ethnicities.

As a self-professed foodie, I have always had a love affair with food. I love a good meal and love a delicious chocolate dessert even more. I enjoy eating out and have passed that passion on to my children. One of my favorite things to do when my children were in their pre-teen and teen years was to take them out to dinner every Friday night. This was not only a time to share good food but it was also a time to catch up with them and find out what was going on in their lives and minds. While we ate our meal I used to conduct what I called “Life Lessons” sessions. This was a time the kids could ask me questions on any topic they wanted to discuss. It was a time to bond as well as share my knowledge, insight and wisdom on any number of topics. Those are some of my most memorable moments with them.

Early on in my career I traveled around the country quite a bit for work. This gave me an opportunity to visit cities I would not have visited on my own. It also gave me a chance to try different cuisines from around the country. One of my hobbies was to try and recreate some of my favorite dishes from each trip when I returned home. Some I was able to recreate quite successfully. I love trying to figure out the ingredients needed to make the meal taste as close as possible to the restaurants’.

My favorite cuisine is BBQ. I love to sample the most popular BBQ restaurants in new cities. Over the last year I have been on a quest to find some of the best BBQ places in the US.  I find new places by suggestions, reading articles on the best food finds and watching traveling food shows on television. In addition to eating good food, I also like cooking big meals for the holidays.

As a soon to be empty-nester, this is the perfect time in my life to branch out into the world of blogging. As I start this new chapter in my life, I will have plenty of time to travel and taste the world.  I hope you will follow me on my journey as I venture out to visit new places, festivals and try new foods. My goal is to provide my followers with honest food reviews they can trust based on my first hand experiences. I will also show you some of my own home cooked meals. I will tell you what worked well and what did not.

Enjoy.

Sincerely,

Allison