Nicole Quihuis
Food is LIFE!
When I wake up in the morning, I'm already thinking about dinner! I love to cook and entertain as often as my pocket book will allow! And even then, pulling something together with random ingredients between the fridge and pantry always makes for a nice surprise! I enjoy sharing my food experiences with those I love and introducing them to new and exciting flavors and textures! Favorite food + favorite people = celebrating the two most important things in my life! I adore all things charcuterie and fromage! Good olives, some crispy bread, fantastic wine and specialty desserts are my staples and over the years have rotated new and exciting delectable food for my family to share in!
My love of foods mostly stems from my curiosity; I’ll try anything once and have yet to find a food that I haven’t liked. Having Sicilian and French roots on my Mom’s side and Tohono o’odham and Mexican on my Father’s side... there wasn’t anyone specific cuisine in our household, but my parents and grandparents exposed my brothers and I to all different types of foods. The food in our household of 5, depended on what might have been within budget, what was fast and convenient to our traditional crab feast for Christmas Eve. I have fond memories of my mom baking and cooking until the morning hours around the holidays making all the traditional holiday fares, the house warm from the oven and smelling of pie would send me off to sleep... watching her cook and bake on a regular basis made me appreciate food, although my Grandmother Rose would beg to differ. Grandma told me about one time when I was little, she made me retrieve the banana I threw out in the toilet, threatening to make me eat it if I wasted any more food! As I got older, for some reason the only place vegetables tasted good was at her house! Even liver and onions cooked in her cast iron skillet tasted good!
My family had a motor home and my Grandparents belong to ‘The Good Sam Club’ and between the road trips and camping clubs... I remember a road trip where my mom went out in the woods and coming back with some fresh picked wild berries proceeded to make, still to this day, one of THE most memorable berry cobblers I have ever eaten! Who knew the goodness to come out of that tiny gas oven in our motor home and the impression it would have on me for the rest of my life!
My brother, Chris also fell into cooking at an early age. Chris is a self taught Chef working his way up from a line cook at 15, to Sioux Chef. Nothing more I use to love than to go sit at the Chef’s bar watching him cook and sampling anything he’d throw my way... try this, taste that! Chris is a big influence behind my passion of all things edible and even those that are not... like the time he kicked sand in my mouth at the beach, brat! I remember sitting at his kitchen table sampling dried chili peppers... there must have been at least a half dozen varieties from sweet to smoky, I had no idea and was impressed by each one I tasted as we sat and talked about possible recipes. Lucky me, Chris’s knowledge base is very broad, he can take just about anything and turn it into something spectacular which I am more than happy to devour!
Everything revolves around food. It's exciting! It's sexy! I love to see how it transforms body language, the tone of ones voice and the mood. I love how food brings us together... and how it’s brought people into my life.
Food is LOVE.
