Food as Medicine
The day I was born, a surgery left my intestine permanently damaged — and the door to illness swung wide open. My gut became both my challenge and my teacher. Cooking turned into my lifeline. It wasn’t about chasing a cure, but about keeping my body working, my spirit alive, and sometimes even finding joy in the mess.
More than 20 years ago, I became one of the pioneers of microbiome cooking, healing intestinal ulcerations by balancing bacteria. Since then, I’ve devoted my life to food that not only tastes good, but supports digestion, mood, and energy.
On our ranch and farm, I opened and ran The Pinewood Kitchen for seven years. It was a true farm-to-table restaurant — we raised the beef, pork, honey, produce, and even mushrooms that made their way onto the plates.
But Pinewood was more than a restaurant. It was an inclusive kitchen, one of the first in our county to embrace food allergies, dietary restrictions, and diverse needs. In a rural Southern community where “special diets” were often misunderstood, we built a table where everyone could sit, eat, and feel seen.
Neighbors, travelers, and strangers gathered there not just to eat, but to laugh, heal, and discover that food could be joyful, safe, and life-giving all at once.
Food, I learned, is medicine — and medicine is most powerful when it’s shared.
Dreaming as Guidance
When I was a teenager, loss came all at once — my mother, two of my best friends, and my grandmother within three weeks. Grief hollowed me out, and I needed a way back to myself.
That pain carried me to the Santa Fe desert, where shaman women introduced me to conscious dreamwork.
Conscious dreaming is the art of working with your dreams — not just while you’re asleep, but while you’re awake. It is a practice of emotional and spiritual healing, a way of facing fear, loosening victimhood, and imagining a brighter future.
Through dreamwork, I discovered I could shift my fear, soften grief, and dream a life larger than my losses. Alongside dreamwork, I embraced many healing modalities — including intensive therapy with a psychotherapist who was both spiritually open and scientifically progressive. Journaling, yoga, meditation, and tai chi also became part of my rhythm. Each practice helped me unravel the past and begin to see a brighter future.
Dreaming eventually led me to my husband, Lee. We quite literally dreamed our way to each other, and together we built a life measured not by the size of our house, but by the square footage of our experiences — from the Mexican jungle to Sausalito, Malibu, and our ranch in Tennessee.
Together, Lee and I joined Veronica and Alberto Hernández in bringing The Dreaming House Teotihuacán to life — a sanctuary where people still come to remember how to dream. Today, I continue our legacy of dreaming our lives into reality, guiding groups through the pyramids of Teotihuacán and teaching dreaming practices at The Dreaming House. Contact me for more information.
Whole-Person Healing and Resilience
Lee also founded several treatment centers, which we owned together — including The Recovery Ranch in Tennessee, The Canyon in Malibu, and The Integrative Life Center in Nashville. Each was devoted to whole-person healing, reminding us that true recovery always touches body, mind, and spirit.
Along the way, I witnessed thousands of people reclaim their lives. I also became a mother of two daughters, and more recently, a widow. Loss and reinvention have walked beside me all my life. I know what it takes to fall apart — and what it takes to create yourself again, both in the world and in the kitchen.
The Juicie Bits (Philosophy)
All of these experiences — food, dreaming, healing, loss, and love — are what I call the juicie bits.
The juicie bits are the flavors that only come from living all-in: the vulnerability, the resilience, the humor, the tears, the recipes that keep us alive, the dreams that guide us, and the community that holds us.
That is why I am creating The Juicie Bits podcast and The Juicie Table weekly gatherings — coming soon — places where we can cook, dream, laugh, and tell the truth together.
A FEW CREDENTIALS
I have shared parts of this journey in my books My Kitchen Cure and My Pinewood Kitchen, at The Pinewood Kitchen restaurant, and as a television contributor for more than a decade — from The Better Show in New York City to Today in Nashville and beyond. I have been named one of Southern Living’s Cooks of the Year and featured in Forbes, FSR, and more.
But the real story is always at the table.
MY INVITATION
I want you to feel safe and cozy enough to see yourself in me, to sit at the Juicie Table, and to remember that nourishment is about more than food. It is about dreams, stories, truth, and connection.
Let’s get juicie together — and turn your kitchen into a sacred, joyful place.
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CONTACT MEE
You can get in touch about anything on this site that takes your fancy. Just click below and email me.
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