Deanna McCaulley
My love for baking and cooking first began when I sat upon a baker’s stool as a little girl. My love for people grew in the midst of church potlucks.
Having had a few careers while paving my way with deep thoughts and all-out laughter, one might say I’m the Robert Fulghum of the culinary world.
I started out working in one of the Seattle area’s most famous bakeries, Scandia Bakery and Lefse Factory. This is where I found my love for Air Supply, caring customer service, and gluten.
In an effort to feel more grown-up, I learned how to drive a stick shift and became a banker sending wires to the tune of 63 million dollars across the world for large corporations, often sending them to the wrong country. No one said I was good at it, just that I did it.
While raising my liddles, son & dotter (who are now in their twenties), I bundled them up in their footie pajamas and tiny sweatshirts so they could ride along on my auto paper route between 4-6 am. During these years I thought I could cook. But, truth be told, my children are made of half love and half Rice-A-Roni.
I eventually made my way into ministry and counseling women through various walks of life. This included helping women out of dangerous living situations, helping them to heal their past, and simply teaching others how to connect for real. After twenty-ish years of counseling work, I watched all seven seasons of Gilmore Girls in one month’s time and started an exciting new adventure. I opened an inn and taught myself to cook for real.
While looking through old cookbooks, I noticed many recipes used canned soups and boxed mixes. Marketers had taught home cooks to cut corners and inspired them to use convenience foods by offering cooking contests. After a couple of generations, the art of cooking from scratch had been lost. Soon, home cooks didn’t know how to bake a homemade cake and were being told tricks they could use to make the boxed cake mix seem homemade. So, I decided if I was going to learn to cook, I wanted to think outside of the box and… er… can. Little did I know this would open a door to even bigger adventures.
For several years, I hosted guests, including celebrities, at my award-winning The Old Hen B&B in the Snoqualmie Valley. I have made more than my fair share of beds, have hosted more dinner parties than I can count, and have been seen on both local and national television with my Saucy Balsamic Burgers which knocked ‘N Sync’s Joey Fatone to his knees. Besides my children, my mud pie is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever created.
After losing my home, my award-winning bed & breakfast, my father to cancer, my car, my brother to a heart attack, and my life as I knew it – all in over just six weeks time – it was time for something new. Never mind pancakes and muffins, I had to start life from scratch.
While rebuilding my life, I came to appreciate my friends and family even more than I had before. And that is how the social part of this site came to be. We need one another; and, while we laugh and cry together, we might as well break artisan bread together. And enjoy prosciutto. And Castelvetrano olives. And some Beecher’s Flagship Cheese. And a good, bold cab. And, well, you get the idea.
My website has been around since 2009 and I have recently morphed my life experience, my original love of baking & cooking, and my love for people into one exciting new online experience full of recipes and resources that will totally improve your social life. Stay tuned. There’s more to come!