about

 

rel·ish  \’re-lish\
(n): enjoyment of or delight in something
(v): with immense pleasure

I’m Cory, and (a warm!) welcome to my little corner of the interwebs, dedicated mostly to cooking – with the occasional life-musing/deep-thought/shameless pug-love sprinkled in.  Since I started this blog many moons ago (or more accurately in 2011), a slew of things have shifted and changed, but I’ll do my best to catch you up by using that threadbare idiom “to put it all in a nutshell” and tell you this: I am a former city mouse-come-country-girl turned  San Franciscian turned modern farmer, and, outside of my very scattered geographical whereabouts, I’ve made the journey from stock trader to chef to bakery manager to jewelry designer.  Trust….I’m scratching my head too….but I feel so enriched by my experiences and by the amazing human beings I’ve met along the way, that what else can I say?  I’m embracing this wild ride.

I live with my seriously delightful husband, James, on an avocado ranch in Montecito, which is a tiny but very special little polka-dot of a town snuggled up next to Santa Barbara and the Santa Ynez mountains in the Central/Southern Coastal region of California.  We live and work on the ranch where we cultivate avocados and lemons, where I cook (and make loads of guacamole) for my family and friends, and where I design and create my jewelry line, Celia West.

Currently, animals outnumber the humans in our household, as we share our home with a spoiled Queen Puglet, Winnie, and two frisky little black rescue kitties, Waffles (yellow eyes and supremely regal) and Sushi (piercing baby greens and admittedly small and scruffy).  I cook for our not-so-tiny tribe of five as often as I can, and aim to keep all of my meals simple, fresh, interesting, and relatively healthy.  I believe in using only real ingredients (no fat-free or Splenda here folks), and that nothing is off limits and true moderation is key.  

Except when there is cheese involved.  Who can exercise moderation in the face of an expertly curated plateau de fromages? If you can, you’re a better human being than I. 

Over the past few years, this blog has evolved to be a cooking-slash-life diary of sorts; a way to catalogue and share my great triumphs and tragic disasters slight missteps in the kitchen, our travels, our unexpectedly frequent geographical moves, my life experiences, and any other little things I happen to find, and like.  I hope to have something to look back on for inspiration, self improvement, and general reflection.

I’m so glad you’re here! So let’s sit and eat.  Or chat.  Or both.  I’ll get the wine!

Above photo taken by the seriously amazing (and talented! and funny!) Sarah Deragon, owner and photographer extraordinaire at Portraits to the People here in San Francisco.