Hi Fellow Foodies,

Firstly let me give you an explanation of the name, my name is Sally (pleased to meet you by the way) and my husband’s name is Paul, take my first and last letter and then place my husband’s name in the middle and Voila Spauly is born. I first came up with it on our first Christmas as a couple, I bought one of those stars you can name for Paulies Christmas present and before you ask no we have never seen it and yes it is not visible with the naked eye as it is like a speck of dust!
I thought I would briefly share with you how my food journey began. My now husband and I got together 9 years ago, we weren’t experienced cooks and our parents generation was the new ‘frozen food’ trend so crispy pancakes, sandwich spread, reformed ham etc. Our food journey began with ready meals from Marks and Spencer, which then progressed to us visiting our local farmers market which was becoming more and more popular. We really believed in the organic, local and seasonal fresh ingredients and started working our way through Delia, Rick Stein, River Cottage etc. recipes. As you can imagine we progressed from farmers markets to a local butcher who rears all his own meat to a local fish monger who has his own fleet. My favorite time of the month are these trips as you don’t know what they will have, for example last weekend our butcher had beef ribs and the fishmongers had Red Bream and Octopus (he kindly gave us a lesson on preparing this like removing the beak etc.) so this meant I had to find Paulie recipes for these wonderful local ingredients. We also enjoy eating out and trying local foods all over the world whether it is at accomplished chef’s restaurants right down to street sellers or a tiny cafe. We visited one in Cornwall which had a single lobster pot, they served us spider crab and chips with no fancy seasoning or sauce just a wedge of lemon and salt, to this day that is truly the sweetest and freshest crab I have ever eaten. We saw them bring in the catch in the morning and returned for lunch, I felt like the happiest woman in the world with the sun beaming on my face and me and Paulie picking the sweet salty flesh. I’m sure you also have unforgettable food moments.
So as you can see I decided that I wanted to put the hours I spend looking up recipes, researching restaurants and even the time I spend watching all the cooking programmes that are available to some use and share with all the fellow foodies that love seasonal food and would like to try new recipes as much as I do. Oh yes and I am lucky as my husband is an excellent cook and has it ‘naturally’ unlike myself, he swears it is because he was good at chemistry at school.
So please do enjoy mine and Paulies food journey!