Member Since:
Feb. 2005
Cooking Level:
Intermediate
Cooking Interests:
Grilling & BBQ, Stir Frying, Slow Cooking, Asian, Italian, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, Gourmet
Hobbies:
Sewing, Hiking/Camping, Fishing, Painting/Drawing, Wine Tasting
I'm a busy home schooling mom who also happens to work part time. I enjoy cooking and coming up with new ways to prepare family friendly meals. I am a "tweaker" and my husband likes to say that I never read a recipe that I didn't want to change! For more about 5thsister, be sure to visit my blog: http://5thsister.blogspot.com
My favorite things to cook
Anything Savory! Anything Greek! Lately, however, I've begun to explore bread baking with the help of a new bread machine. I love experimenting with all the pizza crust recipes on this site and with the help of Allrecipes, I've learned how to grill a pizza like a pro!
My favorite family cooking traditions
Thanksgiving is especially important to us. I'm a traditionalist and our typical holiday meal includes roast beer-basted turkey (with herbed butter medallions between the meat and skin), grilled asparagus, and a stuffing to die for. Of course, before we can even partake of the feast the family and I compete in the local 5K "Turkey Trot" so we can rationalize making pigs of ourselves. Our other tradition is serving shrimp and seafood on Christmas Eve just after Mass.
My cooking triumphs
Over 10 years ago, My family and I fell in love with a tzatziki sauce served at a local greek restaurant. Through years of trial and error in trying to duplicate this delectable cucumber/yogurt concoction, I finally achieved perfection. I make it often but have yet to take the time to actually measure the dry ingredients involved. When I do, I will be sure to share!
Another success is my often requested homemade salsa. Goes great as an accompaniment to my famous goat cheese quesadillas.
My cooking tragedies
Oh, there are many. A few standouts are...
During a middle school sleepover my friend and I had the great idea to prepare chipped beef on toast for a midnight snack. We thought we'd fancy things up a bit and used food coloring to change the color of the white sauce... it became a nasty shade of "booger green"...
In High School, while preparing a quick dinner for my dad, I cooked a frozen pizza and the crust was terribly tough; in fact, it was not edible. The problem was that I had not noticed the circle of cardboard used with the packaging prior to baking...
Attempting fancy mashed potatoes with garlic, cheese and spinach. I should have stirred in the spinach at the end, instead I used my mixer and blended everything together...another dish succumbing to the color of "booger green".
Finally, the typical 1st Thanksgiving dinner mishap: mistakingly leaving the giblets (in it's paper bag) inside the cavity during roasting.