KDJ
Assistant Cook
Hello from beautiful Virginia. I'm Karen - formerly of Boston - and no, we all don't say Pahk the cah in Hahvahd Yahd. Just sayin.
I'm a mom of 3 grown kids - and, sigh, our youngest passed 3 years ago, so this time of year is pretty rough - and married for 25 years and counting - and lover of critters - we've got 3 here with us -- and year round members of our local zoo -- and honestly I'm just trying to sum up here, I'm 50 and there's lots of stuff -- and a trained CIA chef, but haven't cooked professionally in years, because that was in the 80's and kitchens (strangely enough) were a man's domain and it was rough, really rough, getting a shot... so I went back to school and got a couple of degrees and I work for a big-ass computer company and I traveled all over the globe until just recently - and suddenly I'm working from a home office and traveling just once in a while, and all of a sudden I get to cook again - I mean *really* cook because I don't have little kids at home anymore (but that sweet little thing eating my vanilla biscuit in my profile pic is my new grandbaby), and I can experiment and do what I want... and I'm loving it. I can, I bake, I cook, I don't do much cake decorating anymore cuz my hands just can't handle it like they could a few years ago... and since I traveled to Istanbul in 2012 I have discovered a lasting love for Mediterranean cuisine. Still striving for falafel perfection....
And what else? I have started dabbling in making my own cheese- experimented with Feta right before the holidays and it came out pretty darn good... then I got cocky and made a quadruple batch and screwed the whole thing up. sigh. Go figure. And I can't stand fish. I don't mind cooking it, but you can't make me eat it. I think it has something to do with Uncle Joey's annual 4th of July bash on Boston Harbor.... he lived right on the harbor and the smell, oh the smell. Combine *that* with the smell of steamers and lobstah - and there you have it. It's probably when I developed my mantra "Nothing from the sea." Period.
I'm 50% Sicilian with a garlic allergy. Developed the allergy when I started traveling, believe it or not... and every time I ingest garlic, the reaction gets worse -- so I can't abide restaurants and cooks who can't seem to figure out that there's a whole world of herbs and spices out there, and because it's such a strong flavor, I think poor cooks use it so they don't have to learn how to flavor food. Is that too big a stretch? Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong with that.
Actually feel free to correct me on anything I get wrong. I'm Sicilian - we love to voice our opinion... the other half is French Canadian, which means I can be wrong too and won't take offense when it's pointed out to me!
That's all I got. My husband's been bugging me for a couple of years to join a forum... so here I am.
I'm a mom of 3 grown kids - and, sigh, our youngest passed 3 years ago, so this time of year is pretty rough - and married for 25 years and counting - and lover of critters - we've got 3 here with us -- and year round members of our local zoo -- and honestly I'm just trying to sum up here, I'm 50 and there's lots of stuff -- and a trained CIA chef, but haven't cooked professionally in years, because that was in the 80's and kitchens (strangely enough) were a man's domain and it was rough, really rough, getting a shot... so I went back to school and got a couple of degrees and I work for a big-ass computer company and I traveled all over the globe until just recently - and suddenly I'm working from a home office and traveling just once in a while, and all of a sudden I get to cook again - I mean *really* cook because I don't have little kids at home anymore (but that sweet little thing eating my vanilla biscuit in my profile pic is my new grandbaby), and I can experiment and do what I want... and I'm loving it. I can, I bake, I cook, I don't do much cake decorating anymore cuz my hands just can't handle it like they could a few years ago... and since I traveled to Istanbul in 2012 I have discovered a lasting love for Mediterranean cuisine. Still striving for falafel perfection....
And what else? I have started dabbling in making my own cheese- experimented with Feta right before the holidays and it came out pretty darn good... then I got cocky and made a quadruple batch and screwed the whole thing up. sigh. Go figure. And I can't stand fish. I don't mind cooking it, but you can't make me eat it. I think it has something to do with Uncle Joey's annual 4th of July bash on Boston Harbor.... he lived right on the harbor and the smell, oh the smell. Combine *that* with the smell of steamers and lobstah - and there you have it. It's probably when I developed my mantra "Nothing from the sea." Period.
I'm 50% Sicilian with a garlic allergy. Developed the allergy when I started traveling, believe it or not... and every time I ingest garlic, the reaction gets worse -- so I can't abide restaurants and cooks who can't seem to figure out that there's a whole world of herbs and spices out there, and because it's such a strong flavor, I think poor cooks use it so they don't have to learn how to flavor food. Is that too big a stretch? Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong with that.
Actually feel free to correct me on anything I get wrong. I'm Sicilian - we love to voice our opinion... the other half is French Canadian, which means I can be wrong too and won't take offense when it's pointed out to me!
That's all I got. My husband's been bugging me for a couple of years to join a forum... so here I am.