No Olives

I’m No Olives, and I’ve got a passion for all things culinary: cooking, new recipes, new restaurants, old stand-bys, wine and cocktail pairings, culinary events, food-focused movies and tv, and culinary photography.

I grew up in rural Springfield, Illinois, where my mother taught me the fundamentals of cooking. Trips to our favorite farmers, Mr. and Mrs. Stevens, for fresh tomatoes, corn, peas and whatever else was in season helped develop my taste for locally grown, organic produce. When I was growing up, my mother threw lavish dinner parties, wowing her guests with puff pastry, souffles, and intricate recipes. On vacations, my parents took my sister and I to extraordinary restaurants; too bad a trip to Chez Panisse was clouded by my adolescent angst. Time in Europe while in college exposed me to boulangeries, fromageries and European outdoor markets. Unfortunately, I was borderline anorexic and totally neurotic, halting all possibilities of pastries, cheeses, and decadence. A twelve year stint as a vegetarian was interrupted by divorce and bacon…these days, I’m less restrictive but still avoid meat and dairy.

My taste has been influenced by the curve of my life: parents and childhood, living and traveling on my own, health and weight, relationships and the pain/joy that accompany them, celebration, creativity, and the sheer joy of dancing in the kitchen to great music, drinking a glass of wine and dirtying up a cookbook, happy to be myself.

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<taste>

Pronunciation: \ˈtāst\

Function: verb

Inflected Form(s): tast·ed; tast·ing

Etymology:

Middle English, to touch, test, taste, from Anglo-French taster, from Vulgar Latin *taxitare, frequentative of Latin taxare to touch, feel

Date: 14th century