I am an artist working with clay, precious metal clay, and black and white film photography. I have been cooking for over 40 years and have attended many food and wine workshops over the years. I love to set a beautiful table with the fine things that I have collected over the years. I love to do a 7 course dinner with all of the wines for a group of a few friends. I can do 6 people by myself. I usually do a mushroom soup, individual beef wellingtons, home made sorbet, a seafood something served in real shells and some sinful dessert with strawberries. I love doing the entire thing. My family has developed our own Brunswick Stew recipe over the years that is the main feature at our big family July 4th gathering. It is low in fat and has no beef or pork. It is GREAT. We cook it over a fire in a cast iron wash pot and make 5 gallons so that we all take some home. I once did the course dinner thing and made everything from scratch including the bread. Nothing came from a package or was pre-made. I once made Chicken Country Capt. with chicken McNuggets. Funny yet very sad.