Me (EF): How did you get so good at cooking?
My Mom (JF): I don’t think I’m good at cooking in the traditional sense, I’ve always been comfortable experimenting and trying new things. Experience is a good teacher. My Mother never minded my being in the kitchen.
(EF): What’s your favorite thing to cook?:
(JF): I love to bake and to make things like jam or sauces.
(EF): What’s the most delicious thing you ever cooked?:
(JF): People ask for recipes and I usually can’t give one out because I didn’t have a recipe to begin with. I think cheesy potatoes is the winner. It was [a family friend’s] recipe originally.
(EF): What’s the most disastrous thing you ever cooked?:
(JF): Oh my, cold banana soup maybe? There’s been more than a few disasters.
(EF): How did you guys get the idea to start having gourmet and dinner parties?:
(JF): From [my Dad] Tom, and friends. They did it slightly differently but the same concept. that was the gourmet anyway. The dinner club was because it gave us a reason to stay in touch with college friends without leaving it to chance.
(EF): You’ve done a lot of home remodeling, what’s the number one update someone should do to their home to make it look better?
(JF): Keep it clean and fresh. I hate to clean but it always feels better when I do, like a whole new house. Don’t I just sound like June Cleaver?
(EF): What is the coolest project you’ve ever done?
(JF): Putting up and decorating a bunch of Christmas trees for a store a friend owned. For myself, the most fun was getting to knock down an outside wall in the winter so the inside of the house was outside. Hard to explain, you were probably too young to remember. I also enjoyed the year we made the porch a birthday harem tent for you and painting murals on the wall for [your brother] Ross’ room when he was little.
(EF): Quick note: the harem tent my mom made for one of my birthdays was the coolest thing ever. I wanted to have a Jasmine party and she turned our whole porch into this elaborate sleep over area with bright tents hanging from the ceiling. No other birthday has compared. Alright, back to the interview: what’s your favorite activity?
(JF): Spending time with you all. Outside of that and traveling, going to auctions, it is an adventure and treasure hunt all rolled up in one.
(EF): If you could be a super hero, what power would you have?
(JF): I always wanted to fly but that seems unimaginative now so maybe to morph into whatever I wanted.
(EF): Where is the coolest place you’ve ever been?
(JF): Russia? New York? Quebec? I was most comfortable in Denmark. I’ll let you know my real answer after I finish going everywhere I want to go.
(EF): If you won the lottery, what would you buy?
(JF): A house on the ocean. Travel tickets. A labordoodle of course. And I’d walk around incognito doing nice things for people— it would be fun.
(EF): Where will you be in 10 years?
(JF): Traveling and living off my children and grandchildren. Seriously, probably still working.
(EF): What was your last splurge on?
(JF): Estate jewelry and Thanksgiving dinner.
(EF): What’s something people would be surprised to learn about you?
(JF): I’m kind of an open book so I don’t know–that I’ve never had a Mountain Dew?
(EF): Who do you admire most athletically?
(JF): Billy Jean King? I don’t know, I’m pre Title IX
(EF): Who is the funniest person in the world?
(JF): Dead or alive? Michelle Bachman?
(EF): Who do you admire most in the area of design?
(JF): You, you have a real sense of yourself and what works for you and I admire that, I get lost in details.
(EF): What would your last meal be?
(JF): Salad, crab cakes and champagne with bread pudding and hard sauce for dessert.
(EF): If you could give someone advice, what would it be?
(JF): Don’t look back at what you didn’t do it will eat you up. Forgive yourself.