The Redneck Chef's Bio

I was born and raised in the piedmont area of North Carolina and have lived most of my life there. I guess what I am saying is I was born a North Carolina Redneck. The Piedmont area is right in the middle of the state and is an easy drive to the coast or the mountains a few hours either way. So basically I had the best of both worlds. My mother’s family was a big one and were mostly farmers raising Tobacco, Pigs and vegetables of all kinds. I remember spending time in the big gardens picking vegetables and occasionally bacca bugs off the tobacco and throwing them on the ground where they exploded. I can still remember my Aunt Lorene churning butter or with her hatchet going to harvest the Chickens and the time in the fall when the pigs were slaughtered. And of being hung on the big hook where the tobacco was weighed by my britches by the older cousins. Some of my favorite times center around hunting, frog gigging, fishing and working in my garden. I love art and really enjoy drawing and watercolor painting in my spare time.

I can not remember a time in my life when I did not like to be in the kitchen asking my mom and Aunts what they were doing or watching the men with their giant smokers cooking the pigs for pig pickins’.

I feel cooking is a creative endeavors much like painting a picture or creating some other kind of art work and because of this I very seldom measure anything except when I am baking. I feel you have to visualize what something will taste like. Early on when I started cooking for myself I would ask for a recipe from this relative or that and they would say well you use this handful of this and a pinch of that. Well needless to say it is very hard to write recipes when you cannot pin down the amounts of the ingredients. But somehow I did learn and some of the recipes in this book I have been cooking for over 40 years.

I had an Aunt and Uncle who owned a seafood restaurant and I went to work there when I was 12. I had an Aunt who owned a Grill where I worked for many years until I earned my degrees in Advertising and Graphic Art, Digital Art and Design and Entertainment Business. I have traveled to many places all over the world and I always looked forward to the exotic foods I would eat there.

I live in Florida now and have found people all over have the need to try new and exciting recipes so I thought I might share some of my favorites. I truly hope you enjoy this Blog.

The Redneck Chef