Jill Sander
Member Since:
Oct. 2002
Cooking Level:
Expert
Cooking Interests:
Stir Frying, Asian, Mexican, Indian, Italian, Mediterranean, Quick & Easy
Hobbies:
Scrapbooking, Camping, Photography, Reading Books
I love to cook! I moved to The Netherlands with my husband and 2 sons in July 1999. Since 2010 we are back in California after 11 years of living in Europe. I still take the time to put a good meal on the table. All 'my men' enjoy my cooking and are not picky eaters, although they all have one or two things that are not their favorites. My motto is: You have your favorite food on special days, like your birthday. On other days? You can't always have your favorite, sometimes is just good.
My favorite things to cook
Indonesian:
Fried rice,
Sambal Goreng Telor,
Sate,
Gado-Gado,
Bapao (Pork Buns),
Pot stickers,
Mexican:
Chili,
Enchiladas,
7 layer dip,
Italian:
Lasagna,
Spaghetti
My mom's recipe
My favorite family cooking traditions
My favorite tradition is to bake carrot cakes for my birthday. The tradition here in The Netherlands is to treat your colleagues to pie (which they call "vlaai"). I make my carrot cakes in a bread form. This just works out so much better because carrot cake is pretty filling and the pieces can be cut smaller.
Another tradition is to make my famous potato salad in the summer. This goes with almost anything, but I like it with some buttered toast and a cup of coffee.
My cooking triumphs
I love to organize dinner parties, where I mostly stick to a theme.
Some are my themes have been:
Greek night (We go 'all-out': music, napkins and place mates etc. The only thing we don't do is throw the plates...)
Indonesian Buffet: This resembles an authentic "Rijst Tafel" with more than 15 different dishes.
BBQ-your-own: Invited guests to bring BBQ utensils. I marinated the meats and had side dishes. (The spinach dip was a big success!)
Gourmet-ten: With not more than 6 people this is a really nice dinner party!
Lasagna Cookout: Everyone makes their own version of lasagna and bring it for dinner. I make the sides and we all get to try each others lasagna!
My cooking tragedies
None that I can think of...oh wait, My great recipe (actually the recipes belongs to a good friend from Switzerland...) for Cheese Fondue. I was in a hurry to get it on the table and messed up the ingredients. The stuff just turned out terrible! What a mess!