Many (many!) years ago I cooked for a living. In fact being a chef brought me to beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada way back in 1993 where I still live and cook a little. Now when I am in the kitchen it is for friends and family. While I never was a great chef, I like to think that I am okay at making some tasty dishes.

Often I just throw something together and it turns out to be quite good in the end. Then my wife, Esther, and I frequently have a conversation like this:

Esther: This is really good! Did you write down what it is and how you made it?
Me: Nah, no need. I’ll remember.
Esther: No, you won’t!
Me: Sure I will! How can I forget?
Esther: Okay…

Some months go by and inevitably I will ask her “Hey do you remember that [something] I made the other day? I think it had tomato in it?!” Esther: “Urgh!”

She once bought me a moleskin for this exact purpose – to write it the fuck down! It is in the cupboard where all my other written recipes notebooks are. I think it is empty…

Hence the idea for this blog / recipe collection. I think it is far more likely that I will pull out my phone and quickly jot down a recipe while I have a minute of downtime in the kitchen then me pulling out the moleskin and hand-writing it down. We’ll see I guess…

I also always wanted to digitize the recipes I have from my grandma, Ilse, and the ones I did write down over the years in my early days when I did cooking for a living. So those are here too. And full disclosure: I apprenticed in the 80’s in Germany – so many recipes are not what you would call modern cuisine 🙂

So this is that then. If you like a recipe please do let me know. And if you have a better version of it – please really let me know! And if you really don’t like it, I hope that you did not spend too much time on it.

Thanks for dropping by.
Klaus Schoenwandt