I’m a happily retired woman living my dreamlife here in the hills above the market town of Loule in the Algarve of Portugal. I love cooking, eating, music and having a chat with interesting folks over a meal here in my country home ‘Casa dos Amigos’. So, combining these passions 8-years ago, I successfully launched the Algarve Smoke Supper Club.

The Club has gone from strength-2-strength’ serving ‘all-you-can-eat’, tasty, traditional meals from America: home-smoked BBQ Beef Brisket, platters of big ‘n thick Kansas City Ribs, authentic California-Mexican dishes and old-style New Orleans ‘Soul Food’. The dishes I cook are the hearty dishes you'd find in any farmwives kitchen, or eat out on the wagon trail. So there's no spun-sugar-castles to be found here. I don't want you to go hungry so keep filling your plate until you feel content.

And truth-be-told now, most evenings once the dessert is finished and the music turned up just a wee bit, there is often to be seen a ‘turn-of-the-soft-shoe’ around the patio under the dazzling stars above.

When the weather begins to warm, I will be launching home-made, take-a-way ‘Algarve Smoke PIZZA’ and a series of ‘PIZZA ‘n MOVIE’ evenings. The wood oven pizzas are flame baked on a combination of sustainably harvested local Citrus, Almond, and Olive wood. The pizza dough and sauce are recipes from my own Mama’s delicious kitchen.