A question I am frequently asked at markets is how I began doing what I do. Although I hadn't intended on sharing the personal details of my life on this site, I also enjoy knowing about other vendors and entrepreneurs. So here you go!
I am a 7th, possibly 8th, generation Texan with food ties around the world. My family is Irish, and I was born in Houston. When I was very young we moved to Florida, and my parents adopted a Vietnamese refugee family through a government program. Hoa and Thuy and their baby, Jimmy, lived (and cooked) in our house for a period of time. My favorite thing in the world was coming home from school to Thuy's shrimp cakes, and at night my father, Jim, and Hoa dared each other to eat hot peppers in a variety of colors from a big jar. Hoa and Thuy eventually got their own place, and we moved back to Texas when I was 8.
My maternal grandparents lived in Mystic, CT. I spent a lot of time up there attending their travelling cocktail parties, picking raspberries from their yard for breakfast, fetching things from Papa's garden and enjoying his famous BBQ sauce, Roquefort Dressing and Cioppino. I was fascinated with the breads Mema let rise on the breezeway between the house and the garage, and I loved trips to Ford's Lobster Pound and walking downtown to hang out at Bee Bee Dairy. Mema and Papa were both originally from small towns in western Illinois, so along with the delicious New England food came a lot of simple and delicious milk biscuits and country gravies.
My parents moved to Toronto, Ontario while I was attending college at The University of Alabama, so my time was divided between a totally new type of BBQ from what I'd always had in Texas, southern comfort foods from City Cafe in Northport, Alabama and the incredible variety of everything under the sun available in Toronto and the surrounding cities. I was somewhat familiar with poutine, but it was my first time with all of the Carribean and British foods. Apparently a Texas/Alabama combo accent sounds like a South African accent, because I was asked about it more times than I can remember.
After college I somehow landed in Madrid, Spain working for a Texan who owned a language company. Spanish food was unlike anything I had ever experienced, and it took some getting used to. I fell in love with the wide variety of tapas available nearly everywhere I went. Each region and even each village within that region was known for a particular specialty. I could go to a field alongside a Madrid highway in the middle of the night and see the restaurant owners using flashlights to select their fish from trucks that had just arrived from the coast. I could have roast suckling pig in the city of Segovia or travel through each village trying their special leg of lamb, breads or cheeses. I am crazy for the simplicity of Spanish foods and the respect and pride people have for their local cuisines - cuisines that developed from using only the resources available locally.
I love Texas, and I eventually returned and decided to settle in east Dallas near White Rock Lake. I had friends in the area, and I felt more at home there than in other areas of the city. I began learning to cook, because I couldn't find or afford the delicious foods I had grown accustomed to eating in Spain. Our climate is similar to that of Madrid, so the ingredients are mostly inexpensive and easy to find. The regional cuisines in Texas aren't as pronounced as they are in many parts of Spain, but they do exist, and it's another area I love to explore, particularly foods along the Gulf Coast and in the German and Swedish settlements.
All of this comes together in WeMe Dallas. I started in 2009 baking only a single type of bread, a Spanish toasting bread called Pan de Pueblo. It's a very simple bread that's meant to be your blank palate. I have gradually added sauces, soups, desserts and more, and I hope to continue adding to the product list in the coming months and years.
My market schedule is listed under the calendar section, and everything in the product section is available by special order in any quantity. If you need something you don't see listed, let me know. I can probably make it for you!
Thank you for visiting my site. The kids and I hope to see you soon at one of the Dallas area markets.
Flour to the People,
Christine
I am a 7th, possibly 8th, generation Texan with food ties around the world. My family is Irish, and I was born in Houston. When I was very young we moved to Florida, and my parents adopted a Vietnamese refugee family through a government program. Hoa and Thuy and their baby, Jimmy, lived (and cooked) in our house for a period of time. My favorite thing in the world was coming home from school to Thuy's shrimp cakes, and at night my father, Jim, and Hoa dared each other to eat hot peppers in a variety of colors from a big jar. Hoa and Thuy eventually got their own place, and we moved back to Texas when I was 8.
My maternal grandparents lived in Mystic, CT. I spent a lot of time up there attending their travelling cocktail parties, picking raspberries from their yard for breakfast, fetching things from Papa's garden and enjoying his famous BBQ sauce, Roquefort Dressing and Cioppino. I was fascinated with the breads Mema let rise on the breezeway between the house and the garage, and I loved trips to Ford's Lobster Pound and walking downtown to hang out at Bee Bee Dairy. Mema and Papa were both originally from small towns in western Illinois, so along with the delicious New England food came a lot of simple and delicious milk biscuits and country gravies.
My parents moved to Toronto, Ontario while I was attending college at The University of Alabama, so my time was divided between a totally new type of BBQ from what I'd always had in Texas, southern comfort foods from City Cafe in Northport, Alabama and the incredible variety of everything under the sun available in Toronto and the surrounding cities. I was somewhat familiar with poutine, but it was my first time with all of the Carribean and British foods. Apparently a Texas/Alabama combo accent sounds like a South African accent, because I was asked about it more times than I can remember.
After college I somehow landed in Madrid, Spain working for a Texan who owned a language company. Spanish food was unlike anything I had ever experienced, and it took some getting used to. I fell in love with the wide variety of tapas available nearly everywhere I went. Each region and even each village within that region was known for a particular specialty. I could go to a field alongside a Madrid highway in the middle of the night and see the restaurant owners using flashlights to select their fish from trucks that had just arrived from the coast. I could have roast suckling pig in the city of Segovia or travel through each village trying their special leg of lamb, breads or cheeses. I am crazy for the simplicity of Spanish foods and the respect and pride people have for their local cuisines - cuisines that developed from using only the resources available locally.
I love Texas, and I eventually returned and decided to settle in east Dallas near White Rock Lake. I had friends in the area, and I felt more at home there than in other areas of the city. I began learning to cook, because I couldn't find or afford the delicious foods I had grown accustomed to eating in Spain. Our climate is similar to that of Madrid, so the ingredients are mostly inexpensive and easy to find. The regional cuisines in Texas aren't as pronounced as they are in many parts of Spain, but they do exist, and it's another area I love to explore, particularly foods along the Gulf Coast and in the German and Swedish settlements.
All of this comes together in WeMe Dallas. I started in 2009 baking only a single type of bread, a Spanish toasting bread called Pan de Pueblo. It's a very simple bread that's meant to be your blank palate. I have gradually added sauces, soups, desserts and more, and I hope to continue adding to the product list in the coming months and years.
My market schedule is listed under the calendar section, and everything in the product section is available by special order in any quantity. If you need something you don't see listed, let me know. I can probably make it for you!
Thank you for visiting my site. The kids and I hope to see you soon at one of the Dallas area markets.
Flour to the People,
Christine