About Me

Hi, I’m Jill, a food lover, recipe creator, home chef and mom to Tonkinese cats. This Old Gal is our family food blog where you will find well-crafted recipes, made right in my own kitchen with my own two hands.

Thank you for stopping by my little space on the web. I wanted to be able to have a place where I could connect with friends and fans and talk about the things I am most passionate about. We can talk about life, travel, RV living, home décor, food and share recipes. I am excited to share my family recipes for the home cook, which I make right in my own kitchen with my own two hands.

I’m very passionate about a lot of things. I love spreading kindness, love and inspiration. I want to hear your thoughts and concerns and what makes you happy. Let’s concentrate on being the best that we can be.

I am also very passionate about cooking and like to keep it real. I do all the cooking, food styling and photography myself (you probably already noticed that!).

I don’t use professional people or a studio with fancy lighting to make my food look unattainably picture perfect. I want you, my readers, to see how your dishes will really and truly look when you use my recipes and cook them yourself in your own homes.

Don’t you just hate when you go out to eat and see a photo of an incredible looking dish and then you order it and it is nothing like it is pictured? It drives me nuts and it is not honest. I want you to be proud of your own skills and I want you to enjoy cooking.

I grew up in Florida as an only child. My parents divorced when I was very young and my father taught me how to cook and entertain a crowd. I’ve always had a great interest in food, cooking, teaching and feeding my friends.

My father put himself through law school as a short order cook. He taught me how to cook at a very early age. Since it was just the two of us, I was able to get comfortable in the kitchen and enjoyed experimenting and creating interesting meals for us and for our dinner guests.

We enjoyed throwing dinner parties and my dad frequently would host wine tastings. I loved going to Leon’s Liquor to talk about the wine and pick up the cheese wheels. Leon let us borrow dozens of wine glasses and cheese wheels, so that we had a professional set up at the house.

My dad let me help plan the menu, which consisted of all kinds of small plates, as you just want to cleanse the palette and not eat a full meal. Even though I was very young, I was allowed to hang around and watch the festivities.

Cooking came natural and I started to fine tune my palette. My dad loved to take me to fancy restaurants for dinner and my dad would challenge me to come up with the same dish, with the same flavors. We had a lot of fun. My dad died in 2005 and I really miss him.

I’m a girlie girl. I love pink and purple, frilly and cutesy things. Country Charm would describe my home furnishings with rustic furniture. I love blue hearts and have lots of cute décor with blue hearts. When I lived in The Valley, I even had a built in book shelf custom made with hearts cut out at the top of each corner!

My home is also home to a few beautiful Tonkinese cats, who are very demanding and keep me on my toes. They seem to have opinions on everything.

 

This is my Junie Moon. She is my little shadow and owns my heart. She felt doing my income tax was not a reason for me to ignore her. Note to self – close office door, or I take the chance of having all my organized papers scattered evey where!

I want to hear your thoughts, your ideas and what inspires you! Whether it’s a great story, a new accomplishment or challenge, a new recipe or style tip, write it down in the comments section or tag me via social media. I’ll be on the look out! I also want to share your ideas and thoughts, which could be featured on my site.

I’m looking forward to getting to know you.

Jill