The genesis of this website is my cookbooks.  I've been creating family cookbooks since 2009.  For ten years, I sent them as e-mail attachments to friends and my late husband Tom put them on a site that only he knew how to control.  When he died in January 2019, I had to find a new place for them.  I also needed a creative project.  My dear friend Eli offered to help me.  Together we built this website.

 

But there are more than cookbooks here.  I see this as a sort of public scrapbook of the things that interest me, that bring me joy and peace and beauty.  It's really about all that I find delicious - in food and life, as my tagline reads.  It's a little quirky, pretty honest, and just a reflection of my journey, imperfect and flawed.  You won't read about perfection here.  I don't believe in it.  But I do believe in fun.  I do believe in the power of laughter and the comfort of a smile.  

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Why Plumeria and Pine?  They speak to me of my upbringing bridging two cultures.  I was born and raised in Manila, Philippines, a second-generation expatriate.  My mother was also born in Manila in 1918 of German parents and lived there until she came to Stanford University in 1938 or so.  There she met my father, born of Italian parents in Fresno.  So, in the Philippines, we were always American.  This despite the fact that when I arrived for college I had only been in the United States for a total of six months or less in my life. 

 

Plumeria is my Filipina side - although it should be kalachuchi (which is the Filipino word for plumeria).  Pine is a reflection of what I loved about the States.  The clean fresh smell of evergreens.  It's what I missed most when I lived in Boston and Chicago.  It's what I adore about the west coast.  Both as concepts and images, both appeal.  And I love the alliteration, as a good rhetorician should. 

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Is it hubristic to create this website?  Damn straight.  I don't know a way around that.  I've just felt a need to make a space to share myself and my creative products.  I hope they resonate with those who know me, and perhaps strike a chord with potential friends.  Poke around.  Hopefully it will amuse you, calm you, give you a moment of joy.  It's a work in progress, a little messy, and probably always will be.  Welcome.