Wish it - Dream it - Do it!

There’s a plaque hanging in my tea room that says:

Wish it. Dream it. Do it.

It’s not there for decoration.

It never was.

That was the plan.

Long before there was a tea room, I was working as a steelworker. Long days. Hard work. The kind of job where you don’t really imagine yourself trading it in for something like… scones and teacups.

But somewhere along the way, I did.

In 2000, with no culinary background and more determination than experience, I opened a small tea room in Granite City. It wasn’t big - but it had something.

And over time, it became something more.

By 2003, I made the full leap.

Steel-toed boots for a whisk.

And that’s really where the story begins.

Somewhere in the middle of all of that, I wrote and self-published a cookbook called Beyond the Garden Gate.

The company I worked with is no longer around.

The files are gone.

And I’m down to one last copy sitting on my shelf.

So instead of letting it sit there…

I’m going to start sharing pieces of it here.

Not all at once.

Not as a project.

Just as they come.

The recipes, the stories, and the moments that helped shape everything that came after.

Because the truth is…

this was never just a cookbook.

It was a path.