Member Since:
Aug. 2003
Cooking Level:
Expert
Cooking Interests:
Baking, Grilling & BBQ, Slow Cooking, Asian, Mexican, Italian, Southern, Mediterranean
Hobbies:
Scrapbooking, Gardening, Camping, Walking, Fishing, Photography, Reading Books
I am a Southern California Girl, raised by Southern Parents from Arkansas, growing up it was fried, gravied or fried, Our vacations were hunting and fishing trips. As I got older and had Home Ec classes, I found new foods, and still today find new foods. My son and i love Sushi, which my husband calls bait, lol. But we as a family love to camp, and our mission every trip is to find the freshest vegetables and foods and gormet cook in camp. It blows away people in the site next to you when you come in from the fresh fish market on the pier and the local farmers market and whip together Clam Chowder and chedder biscuts with a huge salad. We also watch the Food Network more than any other tv chanel out, Which has inspired my 15 yr old son to become a chef. This kid loves food, from a very young age (he started eating smoked oysters and crackers for breakfast at age 3)He will eat things I never imangined a kid to eat. His favorite Chefs are Bobby Flay, Emerille, Giada, Rachael and Paula De
My favorite things to cook
BBQ anything, My Prime Rib is mouthwatering, roasted chicken and turkey any time of the year. Fresh Vegetables, and I am world famous for looking into the pantry and freezer and whipping out a gormet meal in a matter of a hour.
My favorite family cooking traditions
I would have to say our camping trips up the coast to Pismo. We always plan to be there early on a Thursday, so we can drive up to San Louis obispo to be at the Thursday night farmers market they have. We always buy fresh vegetables and fruits, you can always get the sweetest strawberries there no matter what time of the year it is.We also pick up farm fresh eggs and a bouquest of fresh sesonal flowers that are put into a tin can that travels with us and sets on our camp table. We have several stores we always gp into in the area also to finish out our groceries. Then it is just a matter of what to cook and when. Last trip the hit was the apple cobbler I cooked in the Dutch oven in the fire pit, and the pot roast that cooked all day the next day while we were down at the beach.
My cooking triumphs
Taking on a job with the forest Service and cooking at their fire training center and cooking for anywhere from 10 to 200 people at a time. I had cooked for parties before and worked in a italian resteraunt for a while, but never to this extent. I did everything, meal planning (3 meals a day)ordering, prep, cooking and baking. I had a staff of 3-5 that helped with the clean up and occasionally helped with salad bar prep, but I did everything else. It was hard work, but one heck of a pleasure when you get told how great everything tasted. I also have prefected roasting a Prime Rib, to the point of I can do it in my sleep!
My cooking tragedies
I was trying to cut corners during a huge class at the training center and decided to cut up red potatoes to roast the day before i was going to cook them. I put them in huge baking pans, covered then with seasoning and covered them up with aluminum foil and put them in the walk in. the next day when I took them pout they had all discolored and looked horrible! I had to throw them all away and ended up using potato pearls (YUCK) When I was putting pans away was when I realized I had placed them in aluminum pans that had caused them to discolor. One time at home I baked pumpkin pies and instead of putting them on cookie sheets in the oven I just put them directly on the racks, when I went to remove them, one pie litterially foled in half and dumped all over the oven door. What a mess!!!