RonaNZ

about me

Photo is of me and my daughters.

I joined this site when I was teaching a cooking class at night school. I was looking for some more recipes and came across Recipezaar - and got hooked. Check out the recipes we did in class in my cookbooks or this thread. http://www.recipezaar.com/bb/viewtopic.zsp?t=228816

My day job is teaching high school (maths and ICT), a recent career change for me and I'm loving it. I used to be a software developer but I got bored. The kids I work with are never boring. Frustrating, annoying, make you pull your hair out but never boring! No, seriously, I love them all - and they know it and use it to their advantage!!

I'm originally from Scotland but we traveled a lot. My father is a civil engineer. My Mum's job was looking after my Dad (and us) and she did it extremely well (still looks after Dad). I credit my Mum with giving me a love of food and cooking. I spent my childhood years in Malawi where we had a gardener and grew a lot of our own vegetables. I don't think we ever had anything out of a can and we certainly didn't have a freezer in those days so everything was fresh. She would make her own puff pastry, could debone a chicken and leave it in one piece, always had some baking in the pantry and there was always pudding. Teenage years were spent in the Caribbean. I've also lived in France, USA and Tonga. I went back to Scotland to go to university, met my husband and ended up staying for 13 years! My daughters were born in Scotland. We moved to New Zealand in 1994 and this is home now.

I love dancing (salsa - hmmm, a tasty dish as well as a sexy dance!) and I'm in a steelband. I'm constantly on a diet. I lost 22kg a couple of years ago on SureSlim, a weight loss programme in NZ, Australia, Canada and UK. Unfortunately I've put most of it back on this year. I've been too busy recently to get myself organised but now that I'm not teaching night school, I should get back into it.
This is a unofficial support forum for SureSlim. We welcome anyone who is trying to lose weight.
http://sureslimlosers.14.forumer.com/

A bit about my recipes and reviews:
I will only post recipes I have made. I tend not to state quantities for salt and pepper since not only do tastes differ, but different ingredients can vary in saltiness or flavour (cheese etc.) and affect the dish. This was a problem I came across in the cooking class I taught. I had included amounts for salt just so that it was included in the nutritional value (I have other software to work this out for me, sorry Zaar!) and the students took me literally. The best way to figure out how much to add is to taste it.
Reviews: 5 stars - it knocked my socks off, 4 stars - I'll make this again, 3 stars - good recipe but I'd probably make changes, 2 stars - I'd probably change a lot, 1 star - something was seriously wrong here. I don't expect to give any 1 or 2 stars since I can usually tell if something is going to turn out right and I know my taste and wouldn't make anything that I know I wouldn't like, eg I don't like ham and pinapple together so I wouldn't make a recipe with ham and pineapple and then say it wasn't to my taste!

Favorite Foods:

Antipasto, tapas, anything small and tasty!

I love soup and always make my own soup. I had some tinned soup recently when I was sick and my daughter bought me some. It was revolting!!

My favourite meal is a simple salad. Lettuce, something grilled (steak, lamb), a grilled vegetable (mushroom, zucchini, eggplant) and a good dressing. If I'm being really fancy, I add some pear or nectarine but I think the less ingredients, the better. It's a case of less is more.

I'll cook pasta and other carb rich dishes at home to keep my daughter happy but I wouldn't choose that type of dish in a restaurant. Maybe just as well with my propensity to put on weight! I don't have dessert with my meals now.

http://www.caribbeanz.co.nz