About Us

Hi!  We're Kay & Tom Van Treese.  Here on our blog we'll offer challenging recipes using every-day ingredients, many fresh from our garden.  If you love to be in the kitchen, this is the blog for you.  Our step-by-step instructions will have you up and cooking in no time!  Warning!  NOT for the faint of heart.  This blog doesn’t encourage wimpy cooking (i.e.  no sauce out of a jar! . . . you will learn how to make your own tomato sauce from scratch).  Cooking isn’t about how fast you can whip something up.  It should be enjoyable -  a carefully planned holiday from the stresses of everyday life.  It may not always turn out exactly to be exactly what you expected, but it will always be good!  And it should always be fun.  If it’s not fun, get out of the kitchen!  We also specialize in healthy cooking, using fresh, home-grown ingredients whenever possible.  And being that we are both prone to (ahem) overeat from time to time, many of our recipes are low-fat and low-calorie, without giving up flavor!  We'll tell you the tricks of the trade for substituting healthier choices when cooking.  After all, we've all been on a diet at one time or another!

The Three Headed Chef

 Tom was dubbed the “Three Headed Chef” by our dear friend Lyda Toy.  She took this great blurred-motion photo of him in the kitchen at camp.  In the picture he appears to be looking in three directions at the same time (sometimes it’s helpful to be able to do that in the kitchen.)  Lyda called the photo “Fiddler, Farmer, Chef”, as these are the three things Tom loves to do the most in the world. When he's not digging potatoes or whipping up a sauce in the kitchen, Tom can be found fiddling with the Booger Holler String Band.  Kay also plays in the band, and is the Sous Chef and official note taker in the kitchen.

Tom & Kay, hanging out at camp.