cook's profile


RivertownMom
 
Home Town: Columbia, Kentucky, USA
Living In: Lafayette, California, USA
Member Since: Sep. 2002
Cooking Level: Expert
Cooking Interests: Baking, Grilling & BBQ, Stir Frying, Slow Cooking, Asian, Mexican, Italian, Nouvelle, Mediterranean, Healthy, Vegetarian, Quick & Easy, Gourmet
Hobbies: Scrapbooking, Gardening, Hiking/Camping, Walking, Fishing, Photography, Reading Books, Music, Wine Tasting
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My little chef
About this Cook
I am a 45-year old mother of three awesome kids (ages 24, 22 & 21). My oldest daughter is married to the most wonderful young man we could ever want for a son-in-law and living a very blessed life. My 22-yr old girl is about to graduate from the Maryland Instutute College of Art in Baltimore. My 21-yr old son is a corporal in the Marine Corp and has served one tour in Afghanistan. He's stationed at Camp Lejeune, NC. I miss them all like crazy! I've been married for 25 years to the most incredible husband in the world. I've lived all my life in the Bay Area but spent four years (2003-2007) in rural Kentucky. I love country life!! We are now back in the Bay Area and very much looking forward to returning to Kentucky when we retire.
My favorite things to cook
I love to cook just about everything, though I'm not too big on sweets and deserts. Our favorite meats are lamb, chicken, salmon and a good ribeye. We almost never eat pork and we seem to eat beef less and less these days. I've been trying to cook a lot healthier foods lately and try to choose organic and kosher ingredients as much as possible. I've recently discovered a passion for classic Italian and Mediterranean cooking. I've been scouring Amazon for the best cookbooks in that area and can't seem to stop collecting them! I absolutely love that cuisine! Garlic, basil & rosemary are my favorite herbs to cook with. I love cooking with garden fresh veggies and I go through a lot of olive oil in my kitchen.
My favorite family cooking traditions
My favorite cooking tradition in our home is that on Thanksgiving and Christmas the women do all the cooking and the men do all the cleaning up, no exceptions!
My cooking triumphs
My greatest triumph is a pasta salad recipe I created that people always rave about and they always beg me for the recipe. But I've yet to share the recipe with anyone outside the family. I've been told by nearly everyone who tries it that it is the best pasta salad they've ever eaten. Around here, the leftovers get eaten for breakfast, lunch and supper until they are all gone, lol. I guess I'm waiting for a big pasta salad contest to come along and make me rich and famous before I share it, LOL. If and when I do decide to share it, I'll share it here first!
My cooking tragedies
When we first got married I tried to make a pot of pinto beans like my mother-in-law did (one of my husband's favorite things). She told me the recipe, which called for bacon. Instead of putting the raw bacon in the pot (which she just assumed I would know to do), I fried and crumbled it in. Needless to say the beans were terrible. We didn't have a garbage disposal then and I didn't know what to do with that huge pot of beans so I just set it outside the back door (it never occured to me to flush it down the toilet). It wasn't long before they stunk up the whole backyard! I finally dug a hole and burried them. I eventually did learn to make beans as good as Mama but we've never forgotten that first horrible attempt!
Recipe Reviews 36 reviews
High Temperature Eye-of-Round Roast
I wish I had taken the time to search out the bad reviews. If I had I would have realized that this recipe is best not attempted with a gas oven. I followed the recipe exactly, and I mean to a T, and it came out looking and smelling wonderful but the inside was still raw and barely warm. I served medium rare slices from the ends but they were tough as leather. I use a method very similar to this for our Christmas rib roast and it comes out incredibly. But we always prepare it at our daughter's home and she has, you guessed it, an electric oven. So in an electric oven I've no doubt this probably will be a 5-star roast. But I'll be sticking to the crock pot for tougher cuts of beef from now on.

7 users found this review helpful
Reviewed On: Dec. 17, 2011
Creamy Corn Chowder
I am currently on a strict vegan diet and this recipe calmed my cravings on this very rainy day for a warm, creamy comfort food! The silken tofu did an amazing job of thickening the soup and giving it that creamy texture I thought I could only get from adding half 'n half. I made quick work of the recipe by using "microwave in the bag" red potatoes. I also made the following changes: I added 1/2 cup of chopped red bell pepper and sauteed the onion, bell peppers & pepper flakes (about 1/2 - 1 tsp) in some olive oil until soft. I then added the corn and the cooked potatoes (unpeeled), which I'd coarsely chopped. I then added 1.5 cups of vegetable broth. I removed a little over half of the soup and processed it in the blender with a 16 oz package of silken tofu. After pouring the blended soup back into the pot I removed some soup to test some seasonings. I added a bit of thyme and rosemary but didn't care for the result at all. It clashed with the sweetness of the corn and heat of the red pepper flakes. So I simply added salt to taste and topped with cheddar flavored Veggie Shreds (soy cheese). I think cilantro might be a really good addition to this soup. I'll try that next time. This was a beautiful soup, too, with the addition of the red bell pepper.

1 user found this review helpful
Reviewed On: Nov. 23, 2010
Roasted Cauliflower Soup
This was better than I expected and I found myself liking it more the more I ate it. It has a comfort food quality to it, which healthy dishes rarely have. We topped ours with feta cheese and that really made it wonderful. Without the feta it was just okay. I think next time I will add more garlic, definitely not skimp on the feta and I also think toasted pine nuts would be an excellent topping for this soup.

0 users found this review helpful
Reviewed On: Nov. 1, 2010
 
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