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SPARKLER8666
 
Home Town: Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA
Living In: Lebanon, Oregon, USA
Member Since: Mar. 2005
Cooking Level: Expert
Cooking Interests: Baking, Frying, Stir Frying, Slow Cooking, Asian, Mexican, Indian, Italian, Southern, Nouvelle, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, Kids, Quick & Easy, Gourmet
Hobbies: Sewing, Gardening, Camping, Reading Books, Music, Charity Work
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About this Cook
I threw a Tuscan picnic for my own birthday once because I'd been dying to have one, but couldn't get enough people interested. Since it was my birthday they had to come... they all loved it. I have a hard time getting people around me to be adventurous sometimes.
My favorite things to cook
Wet Burritos, Chicken Enchiladas, Spinach Artichoke Dip, Pita Bread, Quick Breads and Muffins, Chocolate Chip Scones, Lemon Chicken, Crab Cakes with Lemon Basil dipping sauce, Eggs Benedict, Couscous, Stew, Spinach Tomato Salad served on Bruschetta, Zuppa Toscana (everyone says mine is way better than Olive Garden's,) Anything fudgy and dark chocolate!
My favorite family cooking traditions
Plum or Peach Dumplings, Waffles, Gingersnaps, Mom's Chocolate Butter Rum Fudge, Using lots of garlic and onion, Turkey in beer every year at Christmas!
My cooking triumphs
My husband loves to camp so I have learned how to pack and cook delicious food in the wild. (We do have a campstove...) My recipe for Paradise Pancakes. And my holiday turkey and stuffing gets better every year. My Salmon Tacos and Pork Tenderloin with a Blackberry Wine and Triple Sec Reduction. My own recipe for Chicken salad which includes poaching the chicken breasts in orange juice and chicken broth with apricots. The ingredients of finished salad include: toasted pecans, chopped apricots and red grapes. It is awesome, crunchy, creamy and slightly sweet with a bit of tart.
My cooking tragedies
Having kids means burning food. I NEVER used to burn food... I waited until I was 30 to have my first child and since then I have experienced more burned or overcooked food than I ever thought possible. Part of the problem is I can tell by smell usually when stuff I am baking is done, but I get distracted by the hooligans and next thing I know...
Recipe Reviews 56 reviews
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Chicken and Dumplings III
I didn't make the whole recipe exactly as is, but it took very well to substitutions. I had turkey thighs instead of chicken breasts, I started by sauteeing a frozen mire poix mix from my grocery store, I used grapeseed oil in the dumplings and pulled them off heat after 15 minutes, then removed them to a serving platter while I added back in the meat and some frozen peas and let the liquid part simmer for minute. I seasoned it to my own taste with garlic, pepper and onion powder, then poured the meat, veggies and gravy over the dumplings. Perfection! Anyway, this recipe deserves the 5 stars because: 1. Most of the recipes for dumplings on this site resort to "canned" biscuits but this one gives you an excellent and easy dumpling recipe. 2. The method of covering the dumplings right away is correct... most recipes say to leave the lid off for the first 10 minutes but I've always found that produces disintegrated loose dumplings. 3. I think the chicken dumpling broth is greatly improved by thickening and extra "chickeny" flavor, so the cream of chicken soup is a good call. (Though you could also throw in a bullion cube and thicken with a little cornstarch at the end if necessary.) 4. It is a great BASIC recipe that you can modify A LOT and still get a good result.

1 user found this review helpful
Reviewed On: Apr. 26, 2009
Split Pea Soup
This is a terrific "basic" pea soup recipe. Here are some modifications you might want to try to get "beyond basic" to "golden." 1. Use a honeybaked hambone for a delicate, slightly sweet flavor and plenty of meat. 2. Simmer the hambone with a cup of chopped onions, 3 bay leaves, 1.5 tsp basil, the marjoram, double the black pepper, 1/2 tsp thyme and 1/4 tsp oregano in a mixture of water and chicken stock for only 20 minutes. Then take hambone out and let it cool... remove meat and replace hambone in still simmering pot. (The meat will become tasteless if you cook it too long so just remove the fat then chop and reserve.) 3. Brown (there should be crispy browned edges to the veggies) a mire poix mix in a tiny bit of butter then stir in 2 Tbsp broth and 2 tsp crushed garlic at the end just for a minute. 4. Add the mire poix, split peas, and a cup of sliced carrots to pot. I use yellow split peas because they look more attractive, "golden." Simmer until the peas begin to change (about 20-30 min.) 5. Remove hambone and add 1 large baked potato diced small. Simmer, stirring often (likes to stick and burn at this point) until potatoes are cooked through and soup is thickened (about 12 min, just add a little more stock or water if it is too thick.) 4. Stir ham back in one minute before serving and remove bay leaves.

4 users found this review helpful
Reviewed On: Mar. 7, 2009
Taco Seasoning I
This is an excellent recipe partly because it includes the oregano and many of the other recipes on the site don't. Like many others I tweak it. Well, actually I just use it as an "outline" and make the following changes every time I make it. (I actually don't make a taco seasoning per se, but tacos from scratch every time. This is about what you need for 1.5 to 2 pounds of ground beef.) First I omit the paprika and black pepper. I don't use "chili powder" and substitute 1.5 TBSP New Mexico chili powder and slightly increase the other spices. ("Chili powder" is powdered dry chilis mixed with a lot of these other ingredients that are in the recipe, while "New Mexico Chili Powder" is pure powdered "warm" chilis.) I use cayenne in varying amounts rather than pepper flakes because I can control the heat better with it and I like the flavor of cayenne a lot better than black pepper (I want Mexican, not cajun.) I use 1 tsp fresh garlic (the crushed stuff in a jar) and 1/4 cup of chopped onion (prechopped and frozen) not granulated. Just after draining the majority of the grease I add the onions and garlic in and saute for a few minutes until the onions are thawed and beginning to cook. Then I make a clear spot in the middle of the pan and add my spices, sauteing them in the little bit of hamburger fat for a minute or two at medium then add a TBSP of tomato paste for a couple of minutes and letting it mellow over the heat before I add the water. When I add the water I add a tsp or s

6 users found this review helpful
Reviewed On: Oct. 27, 2008
 
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