I’m a San Diego girl who loves cooking for my family and friends. I love to throw big dinner parties and cook for the holidays, and I raised four kids on home cooked meals while working full-time. So, you’ll find that this blog is a combination of simple, easy to make wholesome meals, traditional recipes with my personal twists, and great menus for events ranging from bridal showers to Christmas parties. Whether a recipe is new or something I’ve been perfecting for years, every dish I post is guaranteed to be good!

Welcome! I hope you enjoy my food, leave a comment, and come back again soon!

My daughter, Victoria has been doing some of my photos for me.  If the photo is awesome, she is the one who took it!  If it is just OK, that would be me behind the camera! 

Victoria

***Just a note…the name Kalena comes from the Hawaiian name for Karen.  We visited Hawaii for the first time in 1978 and Kalena became my nickname.  I was the only one in our party that left with a permanent nickname!  Somehow I can’t imagine my husband going by “Wiki”!