cook's profile


maryb
 
Living In: Sterling, Virginia, USA
Member Since: Sep. 2005
Cooking Level: Expert
Cooking Interests: Baking, Grilling & BBQ, Slow Cooking, Italian, Southern, Mediterranean, Healthy, Dessert, Quick & Easy
Hobbies: Gardening, Biking, Walking, Reading Books, Music
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  • Member Rating
Apple coleslaw
Caramel sauce
Caramel corn
Beef Burgundy
All day apple butter
About this Cook
I love kids and I love baking - so baking with kids is the best! I'm one of 9 children, and we were always involved with food. Working in the garden, cooking with my Mom, eating my Dad's awesome homemade bread - I've always spent a lot of time in the kitchen. My daughter would stand on a chair to reach the counter when she was little to help me cook and bake. She's grown up now and an amazing cook. I look forward to continuing the tradition with my granddaughter as soon as she gets old enough! Someday I'll take her to the Holy Grail for bakers - the King Arthur store in Vermont!
My favorite things to cook
I love to bake. The smell of homemade bread baking is the best. My dad's bread recipe is the best I've ever come across. Scones, cookies, you name it, I'll bake it. My favorite part about cooking is the chopping - I love to chop! One of the best presents I ever got was a set of Wusthof knives, they are amazing. Chopping is so relaxing, and chopping keeps us healthy, eating up all those vegetables. :)
My favorite family cooking traditions
I think my favorite thing about cooking is the sense of continuity that comes from using family recipes. I make bread for my family from the same recipe my dad always used. Making Sunday pot roast like my mother-in-law did. Baking my mom's famous Christmas cookies every year with my daughter like my mom did with us. All of those things connect us to dear family members, even when they're gone.
My cooking triumphs
Making goat head soup in a hut in Africa. There with the church team on a short mission trip, the folks killed a goat to make a special meal for us. I asked if I could help, and spent the day making goat head soup, blood sausage, and chaphati with some of the most special women!Afterwards, my friends and I sang a little ditty we made up - Mary had a little goat!
My cooking tragedies
I'm lucky enough to have a "cool" mom, who always let us in the kitchen as kids. I remember my first experience with raw chicken very well. Mom asked me to trim off the fat, and I couldn't tell the fat from the raw meat - trimmed away most of the chicken! But mom was a good sport about it. :) Another time, I pulled out the oven rack to check on my blueberry pie. The pie slid backward as the rack came forward, oozing hot filling inside the oven, making a huge mess and a horrible burnt sugar smell! That was when I came to hate the saying "easy as pie"!!!
Recipe Reviews 36 reviews
Apple Coleslaw
What a clever take on coleslaw! The honey, apple and pineapple give it wonderful flavor, much lighter than traditional coleslaw. I had a fresh pineapple on hand, so I added about 1/2 cup of that, finely diced. I subbed cider vinegar for the white, but I'm sure it would be equally good either way. To make it a main dish salad, I chopped up a grilled chicken breast and added it in. A very delicious way to eat my fruits and vegetables, thank you!

0 users found this review helpful
Reviewed On: Oct. 27, 2009
All Day Apple Butter
I am giving this 4 stars because as written it would have been way too sweet. Per other reviews, I used 2 cups of sugar total, 1 each of white and brown sugar. That was the perfect amount for my taste. Also, I definitely need to cook on high uncovered for a good 2-3 hours to get the right consistency. The spices are perfect. I have made this recipe a few times, and will continue to use, with modifications.

0 users found this review helpful
Reviewed On: Oct. 26, 2009
Beef, Burgundy Style
This was absolutely wonderful. I made a couple of very small changes - I added some minced garlic with the onion, and baked in the oven at 275 for about 3.5 hours. This was a little too long, I will try a couple of hours next time. The flavor of this was so rich and delicious. Having just made Julia Child's classic - and very time consuming - Boeuf Bourguignon just a couple of weeks ago, I can say without a doubt that my whole family preferred this version.

0 users found this review helpful
Reviewed On: Oct. 26, 2009
 
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