Yrhaven (aka Condiment Queen)

about me

I love cooking, and have for as long as I can remember, (of course it goes with-out saying that I also love to eat). I guess I come by it honestly, as the majority of cooking I learned from Grandma, & my Dad (who learned from her). My Dear Grandma just passed away this past week (7/16/08), I have a few of her recipes posted on here, I hope people are inspired to try her Lead Cake & Cranberry Salad in her honor. I wish I had more of her recipes to share here, but those were my 2 favorites, which is why I made sure I had at least as those 2 recipes years ago. I was just recently showing my 13 yo son the first recipes that I ever created and wrote down, my first when I was approx. 8. My son loves to cook as well, so he also created a profile on here as well, (fawndog, don't ask me what it's supposed to mean lol) and has had fun posting recipes, particularly from an authentic civil war cookbook that we have. I am more of a "dump cook" rarely measuring, so I have had to start paying more attention to amounts and steps in case I create something I want to post on here. My family calls me the "Condiment Queen" since my refrigerator is mostly full of condiments, I would actually be embarrassed if I counted how many bottles & jars I have, & actually admitted it! Is there such a thing as condiment addiction? I wonder. Anyway, I love to use my variety of condiments when I cook, which I sometimes find difficult when sharing recipes on here, because many of the things I use are obscure, gourmet, & hard to find, because of this, some of my best recipes I don't feel I can even put on here. My recipes range from complicated, unusual ingredients, to pleasantly understated & simple, (kind of like me when I think about it) & could even be said to be closer to ideas, then even recipes lol. I love to make jelly, I have recently discovered that I Can bake, and have always appreciated spices, it took me a lot of years to realize more isn't Always better lol, (although my spice cabinet is also an entire kitchen cupboard so maybe I haven't learned that). I have probably created thousands of recipes as I have cooked over the years, but have not formally documented them, until now. The only time I follow a recipe exactly with-out messing around with it, is on here, so I can give fair reviews, if I do change things I try to be specific about what I changed. I hope you enjoy my recipes, if you have any requests, I have a fairly large collection of cookbooks from all over the country as I have inherited family member's cookbooks who traveled a lot. (Although, with the internet, you can find most anything now-a-days anyway). I find that I am really enjoying "Zaar", what a great community of people, it's fun to share recipes, see what ideas people come up with when adapting to suit their tastes, and of course getting reviews makes it even more fun. Although my pet peeve on here is when people give a lower rating when they seem to like the recipe with no explanation of why, OR change something in the recipe and then give it a low rating, duh!

Favorite Foods:

Most things Ethnic
Spicy foods
Sushi
Mushrooms
Asian
Seafood
Chocolate
Chocolate Cake
Blueberry Pancakes
Mexican (both traditional & Americanized)
Healthy
Old Fashioned, Home-cooked, traditional fare
It might be easier to say what I don't like:
black licorice (although I do like anise seeds)
Lima beans
water chestnuts
Hawaiian Poi

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