cook's profile


Marian
 
Home Town: Warwick, New York, USA
Living In: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Member Since: Oct. 2001
Cooking Level: Expert
Cooking Interests: Baking, Healthy, Vegetarian, Dessert
Hobbies: Reading Books, Music, Painting/Drawing
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Hot Dog Soup
Easy Red Beans and Rice
Lunch-Box "Handwiches"
Crab and Swiss Quiche
Delicious PIneapple Muffins
About this Cook
What can I tell you other than I love to cook and bake and share the goods with my family. If they don't like it, then you will hear about it in a review.
My favorite things to cook
Any kind of ethnic food! I enjoy preparing foods that are tasty, easy to prepare, and full of taste. Foods that are overly complicated and done solely for the pleasure of others defeats the purpose of why I like to cook. It is a creative meditative outlet for me.
My favorite family cooking traditions
My father loved to cook and would prepare traditional German foods like Sauerbraten and German Potato Salad. But what I loved the most was his use of fresh ingredients like taking fresh zucchini in the summer and cooking them with just garlic and tomatoes on the stove top and serving it over pasta. Clean, fresh, and tasty! I also loved that he allowed me the opportunity to experiment in the kitchen starting at age 10 and never complained or made a negative remark about my cooking. All the positive remarks he gave me then helped me be the great cook and person that I am today!
My cooking triumphs
I cooked my first Thanksgiving dinner for family when I was 20 years old and made 2 turkeys. The turkey, the sides, everything came out great and it was easily one of my great successes. I was living in MS when Hurricane Katrina passed through and I volunteered to help the vast number of displaced families. I thoroughly enjoyed cooking and baking in big quantities. I made several pans of Easy Sausage Strata, an AllRecipes recipe, for 100 people. It was challenging, difficult, and rewarding all rolled in one.
My cooking tragedies
The first time I ever made a curry dish was in college. My boyfriend, now my husband, was kind enough to eat, but really never wanted me to make it ever again.
Recipe Reviews 143 reviews
Slow-Cooked Country Ribs in Gravy
So easy! Followed the directions to the letter and let it cook on low all day in the crock pot. I didn't like the color on the ribs after they had been in about 4-5 hours (they went in frozen) so I took them out and put them in a saute pan for a few minutes to brown up. That made a huge difference in color in the crock pot. When they were ready, I pulled out the ribs and added my slurry mixture (1 tsp. cornstarch to about 1/4 cup cold water), mixed it up, and put the cover back on while I served everything else. Then I served the gravy over top mashed potatoes. Huge hit! After I put the ribs in the fridge, my husband snuck them back out to nibble on "just a little bit." Thanks for the great recipe.

0 users found this review helpful
Reviewed On: Oct. 6, 2009
Apple Crumb Pie
Tasty! I used the raisins, but didn't have walnuts so chopped up pecans and cashews instead for the added crunch. Pie was completely vegan with use of Earth Balance vegan spread and a Whole Foods pie crust. So yummy!

0 users found this review helpful
Reviewed On: Sep. 28, 2009
Better Than Best Fried Chicken
This was really good and a nice change for skinless chicken breasts. I used 2 chicken breasts that I cut into tenders and marinated it for about an hour in the egg and soup mix. BTW, I used a can of cream of mushroom soup because that was all I had on hand. To the flour/cornstarch mix I added lots of seasonings to punch it up including chipotle chili powder and Adobo, but I also added cornmeal for extra crunch. After breading, I let them sit for about 1 hour. I then fried them in 3 batches in my wok and for some strange reason, the last batch came out light and looked the best. The first two batches looked like the picture for this recipe and the last looked like regular fried chicken. I can't explain that because the oil was hot enough prior to frying. Regardless, it was a hit because it was moist on the inside and crunchy on the outside.

0 users found this review helpful
Reviewed On: Sep. 15, 2009
 
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