Mary
Member Since:
Mar. 2006
Cooking Level:
Expert
Cooking Interests:
Baking, Slow Cooking, Asian, Indian, Italian, Vegetarian, Dessert, Gourmet
Hobbies:
Camping, Boating, Reading Books, Music
I'm a single mom of an awesome son who loves to cook as much as I do. I'm also a writer and a Pampered Chef consultant. I love shows like SURVIVOR, WIFE SWAP, and BIG BROTHER (not into the romance reality shows). My one soap vice is DAYS OF OUR LIVES, which I watch religiously. I have a really weird sense of humor, in which the words squish and boing play a vital role.
My favorite things to cook
I love baking, especially different kinds of bar cookies. I love doing appetizers too, and my favorite kind of party to throw is to make a bunch of different appetizers instead of one main dish. When I'm cooking for my family, I enjoy inventing soups or skillet dinners out of whatever leftovers are on hand. I used to admire my dad for being able to put an unlikely combo of stuff together and make it taste wonderful, and now I can do it, too.
My favorite family cooking traditions
I'm half Norwegian, and every year at Christmas, we get out my Grandma's recipes and make Norwegian cookies like krumkake, fattigmand, and sandbakels, and other traditional Scandinavian dishes such as lutefisk, (codfish which is cured in a lye solution, rinsed thoroughly, then baked and served with melted butter), lefse (a pancakelike bread you spread with butter and cinnamon-sugar and roll up), and rommegraut (cream porridge).
My cooking triumphs
I'm very proud of the fact that I can make an angel food cake from scratch. Separating a dozen eggs and hoping the whites beat up right is really a pain, but sometimes I do it just because I can.
My cooking tragedies
I can not make good Minute Rice. Can you believe that? It's supposed to be foolproof, but mine always comes out mushy. Not that I really care--I like regular rice better anyway--but it's always struck me funny that for all the complicated things I cook well, I can't do Minute Rice. Go figure.
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