About

 
PWE was the nickname one of my oldest friends from grade school tagged me with in high school.  Throughout high school I was 4' 11" and 89 lbs.  The nickname has just stuck with me.

My mother was from a German/Irish background, and grew up in Los Angeles.  My father was a Czech(though he claimed we had some Chinese ancestry as well), that grew up in Manhattan.  So both of them had grown up with a variety of cuisines available to them.  With my father's job we moved all over the US until they divorced.  Then I got the experience of traveling back and forth between parents that liked to move around a lot!  Though with each move I was able to experience new foods which helped me develop unique tastes.



I grew up doing most of the cooking.  Seemed like as soon as I could hold a knife I was cooking.  This started because my mom worked long hours as a nurse.  So the job of cooking ended up falling to me.  My mother was diabetic, on top of that we went on and off being vegetarian.  So I grew up cooking for  different diets.


My step-dad was from a German/Norwegian background and was a meat and potato kind of guy.  So pleasing him with this weird diet was a little bit of a challenge sometimes.




In 2008 my dad went through his 4th round of cancer and I learned how to cook for his cancer, his celiac disease and his renal problems.

I believe in using the best ingredients I can find.  I'll admit spending extra money on organic produce is completely worth it for the flavor alone.  Not to mention the vitamins and lack of chemicals.  So you'll never find me cooking with ingredients I can't pronounce.  I try to cook from scratch as much as possible.

My husband, Will and I met in a boarding high school and have been married for 22 years.  He loves photography, blacksmithing and hiking.  We enjoy traveling and have been blessed to do a little bit of it.




Will cooks mainly desserts and candies.  He makes some of the best fudge I've ever had.  Here's the first dessert he ever made for me.



I have a gifted son named Jaiden that I  homeschooled from 3rd grade up through high school.  He is currently in college at Grand Canyon University working on a double major in both Business Administration and Mechanical Engineering.  He is planning at the end of this school year enlisting in the Marines.

I love the color blue, daisies, shopping online, cheese, beer, wine, farmer's markets, reading, sewing, DIY projects, and the Seahawks.  I have lived all over the country in places such as Portland, OR, Seattle, WA, Sarrasota,FL, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, TX, Philadelphia, PA, New York, NY just to name a few.  I have been to 46 states and 5 countries outside of the USA.  I absolutely love exploring!  Recently we moved to NE Arizona up in the Pinon/Juniper forest and are in the process of starting a farm on 38 acres.  We have a second blog 2beesfarm.

I'm new to photography, so blogging with pictures will be a learning experience for me.  One thing I wanted to accomplish with this blog is save my recipes and family pictures for my son and future generations.  My family has lost so many of them already, I refuse to make that mistake again.

Families are like fudge, mostly sweet with a few nuts.

-- Unknown