cook's profile


Laura Jo
 
Living In: Anchorage, Alaska, USA
Member Since: Dec. 2008
Cooking Level: Intermediate
Cooking Interests: Slow Cooking, Asian, Mexican, Indian, Italian, Southern, Nouvelle, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, Low Carb, Healthy, Gourmet
Hobbies: Hiking/Camping, Walking, Reading Books, Music, Wine Tasting, Charity Work
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About this Cook
I'm a single person who loves to cook and always trying to find creative ways to use what's on sale at the grocery store (love finding the coupons and good deals). I do a lot of cooking on Sundays, preparing for the week ahead. I try to never let anything go to waste; I save all vegetable scraps and then dump them in a stock pot when chickens are on sale. Over the past two years I've lost over 100# and constantly monitor my caloric intake. I accomplish this mostly by portion control. The best thing about this site is the ability to easily modify the number of servings. I always read other reviews, and hope that my reviews will one day help someone too.
My favorite things to cook
I love trying new recipes, rarely do I repeat one, and my most favorite thing to cook are soups. I love, love, love my soups. One of my more recent challenges is to make everything from scratch and to reduce the amount of ready made foods. I make my own "ready made foods" (baking mixes, spice mixtures, condensed soups, etc.) It takes a little bit of extra time, but I feel a lot better about knowing exactly what I am eating, how much, less preservatives, etc. And it's sooooo much more affordable!! Why buy a packet of taco seasoning mix when you most likely have everything in your pantry all ready? Google a recipe, and voila... I recently did that for condensed cream of mushroom soup, and it was great. I also was able to use up some mushrooms that I found lurking in the back of the fridge, long past their prime, but edible... (I think my frugality...aka cheapness...made it taste all the better)
My favorite family cooking traditions
For all our holiday meals I prepare "Gooda Potatoes". It is a simple potato dish made with gouda cheese, and uses a combination of russets and yukon golds. It's failproof, and simply devine.
My cooking triumphs
All my moments in the kitchen are triumphs; even the ones that produce less than savory meals because they are learning moments.
My cooking tragedies
There isn't enough space here to share all the fun, glorious mishaps that have happened in my kitchen. Update: While not a tragedy, it sure was a mess. I had made the fetacinni alfredo from this site, but there was SOOooo much of it, and I wasn't overly fond of it (just too rich and thick for me). I had already mixed the pasta, sauce and chicken all together and stored it in the fridge. When I went to re-purpose this dish, I had to pick out all the chicken chunks. It felt like I was up to my elbows with pasta and sauce. But I dumped the huge bowl of it in a roasting pan, and proceeded to hand pick out all the chicken. I TRIED using tongs, but...meh...it was easier to just dig in with my hands. euw... On a positive note, no chicken was wasted (I had bought an organic chicken from the clearance bin)and the resulting wild rice and chicken dish I created was fabulous.
Recipe Reviews 36 reviews
Vegan Split Pea Soup I
Quite tasty prepared as is, which is what I did. My daugher sprinkled on about a tablespoon of homemade bacon bits that I always keep in the freezer, and she said that pushes up the rating to five starts. For me however, I was aiming for a vegetarian dish. Will make again. :)

0 users found this review helpful
Reviewed On: Nov. 8, 2009
Slow Cooker Turkey Breast
The frozen bone-in breast was too big for my little cooker, so I opted for the 3# frozen boneless breast (butterball). I added 1 Tblsp butter to the bottom of the pot, the breast (string still on), and dumped on the dry soup mix. Cooked on high until temperature of bird registered 170. It came out super moist. I was surprised at the amount of fat. Flavor wise, it needed a kick. Maybe I'm just use to the gobs of gravy I use to eat (not anymore). I think I'll try this one again, bigger crock pot and the bone-in bird, and follow suggstions by other cooks. I'm happy to have the turkey for future meals. Will be freezing pre-meausred portions. Love the simplicity of the crockpot.

2 users found this review helpful
Reviewed On: Oct. 24, 2009
Cream of Cauliflower Soup II
I'm not a fan of cauliflower, but it was SO cheap I couldn't resist! I went on my quest to find an alternative cooking method and found this soup recipe. It was new and different for me, and as it turns out, a great choice. I made it following the recipe as close as possible. My changes (based on what I had availabe) were using water and better than bouillion stuff; also, 4 skinny old carrots that lurked in the bottom of the vegetable drawer, nonfat milk, about 10 tiny white potates scrubbed and skins left on, and only 1 teaspoon of sherry (I've done sherry in soup before and thought it overwhelmed it, so opted for just a HINT of it in this soup). This soup is a very tasty use for cauliflower. I really like it.

0 users found this review helpful
Reviewed On: Oct. 5, 2009
 
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