Hi, I’m Lisa!  Oh, yeah…the guy with me in the picture is my husband, Chuck.  I’ve had him a long time …. and I’ve decided to keep him.  Turns out he’s one of the best!

Thanks for stopping by to visit my little slice of the web!

I’m guessing, since you’re here, you have a love for food.  Or a desperate need for a new dinner idea….

Either way, I would love to share my recipes, ideas, thoughts, sarcasm…you get the picture.  If you love good food and love to cook, you know what I mean when I say that one of the best things about it is seeing others enjoy your creation.  The aromas, the textures, the flavors….

While we all know food is necessary for survival, some of us believe good food is necessary for the soul.  It can be as simple as a snack you enjoy by yourself to a large social gathering.  I mean, how many things are better than a backyard picnic with family and/or friends?  Or a gathering on a cold evening for a bowl of homemade soup, some crusty bread, a glass of wine and a round of laughter?

That’s what I want to share with you.

My love of food goes way back to childhood, when we (my brothers and sisters and I) had no idea what pre-packaged food tasted like.  In our house, it was homemade bread, homemade noodles, all of it.  Cookies, cakes, pies – it was ALL from scratch…..(gasp)…and the dooouuuughnuuuts…. Fluffy, yeasty, with a brown crispy outside….Oh!  Sorry.   Got a little distracted…  And my mom is still the best at it.

Over the years she taught us that (sob…!) you can have too much of a good thing.  Sugar, fat – you know, the good stuff.  She cooks healthier than I do, but most of those lessons stuck.  So, while I don’t do a lot of sugar free or fat free, I try to cut back when I can.  I just try not to go so far that I sacrifice flavors or textures.  But hey, if you can keep the sodium down by starting with low or no sodium ingredients, why not?  If you can keep the fat level a little lower by using reduced fat cream cheese and sour cream (or replacing with greek yogurt) without sacrificing anything, why not?

As you navigate through my posts (and I hope you will!), you will find that I TRY to keep sodium and some of the other bad boys at a reasonable level.  That is NOT to say that applies to everything.  I mean, sometimes it just can’t or doesn’t matter!  I remember a friend of mine was scheduled to have his cholesterol checked right after New Year.  He said “I don’t know why I’m doing this now, there’s nothing there but ham!”

Mine would be more like whipped cream….or cream cheese.