scancan

about me

I am thirty something and I live in the suburbs of NYC. I have been married for twelve wonderful and crazy years. Even more then cooking, I love giving marriage advice but unfortunately no one's asking. We are the parents of six daughters which is alot of work and chaos but also alot of fun and they are my happy pills (when I'm not tearing my hair out or hiding out in the bathroom). I also am a billing manager in my spare time and in my really spare time I compete against my mother-in-law (and she is an effortlessly fantastic cook!) for the Mean Chef of the year award.

My mother was never taught how to cook herself and to compound it all was a health nut so I've been cooking from a very young age to save myself from a diet of millet, cod liver oil, and buckwheat with steak(don't ask, but it's turned me off from steak forever). I did adopt some of her ways though as I love salads and probably 80% of my food purchases are organic.

I work very hard at making sure that my family and guests love what I serve so when I trouble myself to cook or bake I will only use the very best recipes or else it's just going to be pizza for dinner. I do get bored of the same old things so I'm always on the lookout for new things (food, only food that is ) and my girls love rating the recipes that I try from Zaar ("it's a 3 star, no a 4 star").

The person that I really owe my love of cooking to is my father who loves cooking exotic dishes. From him I've learned all about stuffed grape leaves, persian rice, chilis, fatigmann, etc. and a few dreaded dishes like anchovies and other such fish dishes.Since my father was the great cook I guess I can post this joke:
Two confirmed bachelors were sitting and talking. Their conversation drifted from politics to cooking. "I got a cookbook once," said the first, "but I could never do anything with it."
"Too much fancy cooking in it, eh?" asked the second.
"You said it. Every one of the recipes began the same way- "Take a clean dish and..."

My favorite celebrity chef is Gordon Ramsay and I watch his cooking and other shows whenever I can. If you have never seen "Hell's Kitchen" or "Kitchen Nightmares" I highly recommend it but not for you overly sensitive types ( He curses like crazy and makes everyone cry).

My style of cooking is like an old grandmother in that I rarely measure ingredients as I seem to have a feel for what works so I enjoy playing around with the ingredients but Zaar is slowly forcing me to come around and slowly I'm measuring out my ingredients and posting the recipes. I also have a very bad habit of buying odd cooking utensils some of which end up stuck in my garage (did I really need that electric crepe maker when I make them just fine in my frying pan?) My background is Norwegian American but my parents started keeping kosher later in life. I grew up with very little knowledge of traditional kosher foods since the family had moved from Minnesota, to Winnipeg Canada, to Fort Bragg N.C. (not really kosher keeping places) and then finally to New York. My husband's family background is however is very traditionally Jewish and kosher so I tend to make alot of kosher traditional dishes as well as regional favorites for holidays. The only cookbooks I really like are collections from various people because I think if someone is going to have the nerve to submit a recipe it is usually is one that everyone loves which is why I like this website so much.
I do not submit recipes that I have not made myself as I would feel badly about someone making a horrible recipe that I posted and never tasted. I also try out recipes on this site that I do not rate as I feel that it is unfair to rate a food if you don't like a particular cuisine. An example of that would be grits which I recently tried and that was one of the worst things I ever tasted so I guess it's an acquired taste or else it was a terrible recipe; who knows but I'm not willing to try another one at this point.

"I am sharing the idea that just learning how to make a few simple dishes for yourself or with your kids or for your friends or your lover or your brother or your cousin or your neighbor not only improves the quality of your life, it improves the quality of the lives of those you choose to share the food with. It just does. It's one of the easiest ways for a poor person to feel rich. Make good food" (Rachael Ray)

Favorite Foods:

Japanese, sushi, sushi, sushi, middle eastern, and sweet desserts of all kinds that don't come from a box in the supermarket.
Foods that can always be found in my house are ice cream, granola, and peanut butter (which must be eaten on a spoon straight from the jar). There is nothing that'll get me out of bed except for the knowledge that I have a real percolated coffee with sugar, chocolate syrup, and whipped cream waiting for me. That in a nutshell is what I can survive on except for the health nut in me who adores salad and fish.

I hate beets, caraway, fennel, rosemary, and anchovies (but I love Italian foods that don't have those things, ha ha).
My suggestion to improve this website is to have a black list where certain recipes or ingredients would never appear on your list.

If I could invite anyone to dinner it would be Jim Carrey, Dr. Laura, and the cast of Prison Break. That would make for some evening!
I would serve my chicken soup, glazed pickled turkey, and my chocolate mousse. (I don't fool around and start experimenting when I know important company is coming to dinner).

When I rate recipes I think of the person who will try the recipe out next so although I try really hard not to hurt anyone's feeling by being overly critical of their creations, I still feel a responsibility to others as I wouldn't want to waste perfectly good ingredients on a recipe that really doesn't work and I very much appreciate honest feedback/ratings myself.
I rate recipes like this:
1 star: Awful or bland as can be; I'd never make it again (although I really wouldn't word it like that).
2 star: I'd eat it again if I was stranded on a desert island but otherwise what's the point?
3 star: This could be good if several changes are made.
4 star: This is pretty darn good but not something I'd serve in the White House.
5 star: This could never be improved as nothing is quite as wonderful as this and if you created this yourself I'm going to check out your profile and all of your recipes.

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