Welcome

Hi, I’m Sue Cockburn, the owner/administrator of this website (aka The Lazy Chef). That’s me in the photo on the right.

If you’re wondering ‘about’ this site, I’ve included some information below about me and how this site came into being. If you’re just looking for a recipe, go ahead and search using the search field in the menu bar (just click on the magnifying glass).

The Beginning …

After 30+ years in the corporate world (profit and non-profit) it was time for a change. I decided to venture out and start my own business. I took a short break from September 2010 to June 2011, before launching Growing Social Biz in June 2011.

I have always wanted to gather together some of my recipes, and some of those from my family and friends, test out some new recipes, write a cookbook (I wrote two), and enjoy being the happy homemaker. It was an adrenaline-free time. I loved it!

When I left the corporate world (Alpha Canada, an amazing organization that I had the privilege of working with from 2000 to 2010), my husband and I had just moved further out of a city we love, Vancouver, BC, to the beautiful Steelhead area of Mission, BC.

For the first year of our move, I enjoyed cooking, baking, discovering new recipes and putting together the new Ikea cabinets that would grace our new kitchen (and I developed the carpal tunnel to prove it!) Believe it or not, I also spent time writing two cookbooks, working in my garden and building this website. (If you’ve visited my site since it was built, you’ll know there have been various renditions. Sometimes I just get the bug to tinker.)

My Family

Although my wonderful husband and I weren’t blessed with human kids, we are blessed with those of the four-legged variety. A dog named Karly and two cats, Riley and PomPom (photos below.) I’ve also included a photo of one of our other four-legged kids, a Manx cat named Lial, who passed away in spring 2015. We still miss him enormously. He was a loving and always entertaining cat.

The Business That Pays The Bills

Most of my time is now taken up with caring for my Growing Social Biz clients: managing social media accounts, designing small business websites, consulting and coaching small business clients on marketing and their online presence, teaching a monthly workshop on websites and social media for a local self-employment program, etc.

I’m blessed to have amazing clients that I enjoy working with and supporting. Most are hardworking and passionate small business owners or non-profits.

Cooking … And Experimenting

The Lazy Chef name is simply a cute name (to me) that helped get across my enjoyment of cooking while at the same time communicating that my recipes are not overly difficult or time-consuming.

I enjoy cooking but too often find that recipes include extra steps that really aren’t necessary. Not always, but too often. (At least that’s the way I see it.) Finding the most straight forward way of doing something just makes sense to me. If there is an easier way to do something, I’m all for it! And, I’ll do my best to find it!!

I am always on the lookout to change things up, to make them tastier and easier to prepare. Of course, not all of my cooking experiments/tweaks are better than my first attempt, but hey, I love seeing how I can improve and simplify a recipe. (Don’t worry, the failures don’t make it onto this website.)

I hope you enjoy the recipes you’ll find here.

Warm regards,