cook's profile


Caissa
 
Living In: Everett, Washington, USA
Member Since: Feb. 2001
Cooking Level: Expert
Cooking Interests: Baking, Grilling & BBQ, Slow Cooking, Mexican, Indian, Italian, Middle Eastern, Healthy, Vegetarian, Dessert, Kids
Hobbies: Knitting, Gardening, Biking, Walking, Reading Books, Music
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  • Title
  • Type
  • Overall Rating
  • Member Rating
  • Pesto
  • Pesto  
    By: ANDERVAL
  • Kitchen Approved
  • This recipe has been rated 167 times with an average star rating of 4.6
Caissa
About this Cook
I come from a family of women who like to cook and are all pretty good at it. I find that cooking relaxes me and I enjoy cooking for family and friends. I'm always learning new things.
My favorite things to cook
Vegetarian/Vegan food. I've been a vegetarian for more than twenty years and a lot has changed food wise in that time. I used to only cook vegan food in my home (though that's changed, we're now ovo-lacto), so I feel very comfortable converting practically(!) any recipe so that its vegetarian/vegan.
My favorite family cooking traditions
Cooking for the holidays with my mom. She's German and we make lots of traditional German treats for everyone.
My cooking triumphs
I love homey comfort food---macaroni & cheese, pot pies, anything with potatoes, rich stews, etc. I don't only cook these kinds of foods, but I do like to cook things along those lines. I can make very good vegan versions of most comfort foods. I also like to bake and I make pretty decent crusty bread.
My cooking tragedies
I have a serious sweet tooth and love to bake desserts. A few years ago I tried to make a classic double layer chocolate devil's food style cake from scratch and the entire thing was a mess. The cake didn't rise, it tasted awful, and even the frosting didn't come out right. It took me hours and I still don't know what I did wrong! (I haven't tried a repeat performance yet.)
Recipe Reviews 8 reviews
Brick-Oven Pizza (Brooklyn Style)
Awesome recipe. I'm very picky about pizza crust and have tried many recipes over the years. This tastes totally authentic. Very simple and economical too. I made a triple batch and now I'm glad that I did. (I froze four pizza balls and will use them later.) I let the dough rise in the fridge for the first day and then pulled it out the morning of the second day, since I was going to be gone and wanted it ready when I arrived home that evening. It fermented a bit longer than 16 hours with no problems. I used cornmeal on my peel instead of flour. I also used a cup of all purpose flour mixed with the bread flour. I baked it on a stone that had been heated for an hour and it was delicious! This is my new go-to thin crust pizza recipe.

2 users found this review helpful
Reviewed On: Jan. 31, 2009
Caramelized Brussels Sprouts with Pistachios
I had a bag of brussel sprouts that I needed to use up in my fridge, so I gave this recipe a try. I didn't have red onions, so I used yellow and I didn't have pistachios, so I used walnuts. I added the walnuts when the sprouts were nearly done so they were browned a bit too. I also used extra virgin olive oil with a bit of Earth Balance (vegan butter). I'm sure this would be divine with dairy butter, but I was eating it for lunch and wanted to keep it healthy and light. Despite all these substitutions I thought this dish was yummy and like some other reviewer mentioned it tastes like something you'd find at a restaurant. I do recommend cutting the sprouts in half. I found they absorbed the flavors better this way. I only cut the larger ones in half, but I think I will cut them all in half next time.

0 users found this review helpful
Reviewed On: Apr. 16, 2008
Irresistible Irish Soda Bread
My son and I made this together for St. Patricks day and, except for addition of a cup of raisins, we followed the recipe exactly. This is different than any other Irish soda bread recipe I've tried before. I don't know how traditional it is, but I will say this is the first time I've made soda bread and the whole loaf was eaten. Usually soda bread has such a hockey puck type of texture that it's only good the first day. This was good the next day too. It has a bread, almost cake-like texture. I was going to try making french toast with it, but it was eaten up too quickly!

0 users found this review helpful
Reviewed On: Mar. 20, 2008
 
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