cook's profile


joy-of-jesus-smileymom
 
Home Town: Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Member Since: Dec. 2006
Cooking Interests: Baking, Grilling & BBQ, Stir Frying, Asian, Mexican, Indian, Italian, Nouvelle, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, Healthy, Vegetarian, Kids, Gourmet
Hobbies: Gardening, Photography, Reading Books, Music, Painting/Drawing
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the little smileys
so sweet, we're gonna eat him up!
me
Happy taste tester!
Psalm 98 ...me and some of the cuties =)
About this Cook
A stay-home mom of seven sweet kids, I don't cook as much as I'd like to. However, everyone's seemed to catch the cooking bug and I'm beginning to have some great help!
My favorite things to cook
Dessert for my toothpick husband ("the way to a man's heart..."), but healthy stuff mostly. My ideal foods are whole-grain, all-natural, and low-fat, but colorful and zesty. (Of course most of those criteria go out the window for dessert, but I try!) Yeast breads, colorful vegetable dishes, varied cuisines, and homemade-rather-than-storebought foods--such as tortillas, gnocchi, crackers, yogurt, granola, etc.--seem to intrigue me most. I'm the one reading labels or appearing pensive at restaurants--I'm trying to decipher the recipe so I can recreate it at home! Other than that, I think I most enjoy turning "Cinderella" foods into "royalty": tofu, eggplant, and several other ingredients have turned into favorites...but still not liver, blechhh!
My favorite family cooking traditions
The fluffiest whole-grain pancakes on Saturday mornings at our house. We love to entertain guests for breakfast too, pulling out all the stops for pancake variations with special toppings and fruit. Stop by sometime!
My cooking triumphs
Nearly everything from this site! =) My favorite memory is the year we hosted Thanksgiving for a change. Absolutely everything was from scratch and very savory. The roasted rosemary sweet potatoes were so delicious that my down-south in-laws quietly remarked, "we could've brought the marshmallow casserole..." Guess not everyone enjoys a break from tradition :)
My cooking tragedies
Plenty enough to keep me humble! Green Chile (not jalapeno) brownies, just awful, no matter what the Frugal Gourmet promised...picture-perfect Roasted Turkey sliced at the table and dripping with bl--uh, yuckky red stuff... an eight-loaf batch of pumpkin bread batter crashing to the floor (she was "only trying to help!"... mistaking powdered sugar for instant flour when adding generously to my GRAVY!!!... and, just two nights ago, setting off the smoke alarm numerous times as my handmade butter pastry dripped off the pie and onto the oven floor -- did I mention it was midnight, and I was the only one up?
Recipe Reviews 171 reviews
Rich Chocolate Frosting
Certainly can't complain. Very creamy as promised, and very rich. Great flavor too. You only need a THIN layer of this!

0 users found this review helpful
Reviewed On: Oct. 2, 2009
Lentils and Rice with Fried Onions (Mujadarrah)
From what I understand, this is the "mac-n-cheese" of the middle east. This was a good simple recipe. I followed the advice of previous reviewer "M.A.H." and used brown rice, cooked it right together with the lentils (I used French green) with 3 1/2 - 4 cups of liquid per recipe. I was most delighted to find it cooked perfectly in my RICE COOKER!!! The onion should be at least doubled...because when browned as dark as possible (20-30 min), is truly the star of the dish. And I did find that chicken broth or base is good, as are several dashes of pepper, and a couple dashes of cumin. Five stars for ease, nutrition, and hearty sustenance :) Oh yes~ yogurt, NOT sour cream!!!

1 user found this review helpful
Reviewed On: Oct. 1, 2009
Banana Sour Cream Bread
I agree, this was like cake (good cake!) and I only used 2 of the 3 cups of sugar. It was plenty. Also we forgot to add the nuts to the batter so we put them on top with extra cinnamon-sugar...wow. My 4 pans were 6 by 2 inches, and then I had extra batter for a 8 by 3 inch pan. The 300 degree cook temp IS weird. It worked, but I had the smaller pans. Next time 325!!!!

3 users found this review helpful
Reviewed On: Sep. 24, 2009
 
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