Member Since:
Aug. 2008
Cooking Level:
Intermediate
Cooking Interests:
Baking, Grilling & BBQ, Stir Frying, Slow Cooking, Mexican, Italian, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, Low Carb, Healthy, Vegetarian, Dessert
Hobbies:
Scrapbooking, Photography, Reading Books, Painting/Drawing, Charity Work
My favorite things to cook
Everything! I love making something new. I only have a select few recipes that I make over and over again. Low-Fat / Low-Calorie foods are really important to me because of my family, I want them to stay healthy! I'm still mastering the perfect chicken breast...
My favorite family cooking traditions
My mom is an old school Middle-Eastern / Mediterranean cook and my 2nd mom, my MIL, is an old school Italian cook. They're some of the most amazing cooks I've ever experienced. It still amazes me how they can pull of a dinner party for 20 with 3-4 appetizers, at least one salad, a minimum of three main dishes and, of course, two to three types of dessert, solo, and in under 4 hours. Simply amazing!
I also love it when I ask my mom how to cook something and the conversation goes something like this.
(My mom) "So, then add some cumin..."
(Me) "How much?"
(Mom) "Well, just sprinkle some in your palm and add it, and then add some tomatoes..."
(Me) "So is that like a teaspoon of cumin?"
(Mom) "Just smell it, you'll know when it's right."
(Me) "But mom, I've never made this before, I don't know what it's supposed to smell like."
(Mom) "Well, just smell it, you'll know. Okay, then add some tomatoes..."
(Me) "How many!?"
I love her to pieces....
My cooking triumphs
Pulling of a birthday dinner for my husband (our first since being married) for 11 people and nothing burned or tasted/smelled/looked horrible. (: I even got some compliments, even if they were mostly from the moms :) Most of my desserts are pretty damn good and creative.
My cooking tragedies
Ugh...
4) A gross low cal enchilada that no one wanted to choke down but kept eating until I finally told them that they should just put themselves out of misery and dump the damn things.
2)A dry tasteless low fat / low cal cake. It didn't have any flavor whatsoever, stale, unflavored rice cakes have more taste.
1)A horribly dry chicken (my first experience cooking on electric v. gas range) after I'd talked myself up about how great I was at cooking this blackened chicken dish. Wow that sucked!