NorthwestGal

about me

I live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, in a semi-country area about 30 miles outside of Seattle. I am married and have 4 kids (2 girls, 2 boys). My oldest daughter got married a few years ago, so I have recently added a fantastic son-in-law to our family tree. I am not a grammy yet, but hope to be soon (fingers crossed!). We have horses, bunnies, and dogs as pets. At any given time you can find a wide variety of God's woodland creatures roaming our property as well, including deer, a Black Bear cub, coyotes, a cougar, and too many squirrels, rabbits, raccoons, ducks and geese to even count.

I worked in the human resources field for over 20 years, primarily in the health-care industry (which I recruited medical faculty for a public health program at a major university, and later I recruited nurses and other clinicians for home-health care placement). I now work part-time for the juvenile justice division of my local court system, which we determine consequences for first-time youth offenders.

Now that I have some spare time on my hands, I've discovered that most of my recipes are terribly outdated. So I visit cooking-related websites for cooking inspiration and ideas for new and interesting recipes. I also enjoy sewing, crocheting, quilting, reading, gardening, and spending time with my wonderful husband. I also enjoy traveling and discovering new wines, coffees and teas. In my leisure time, I enjoy shopping with my two girls and playing video games with my two boys.

All the other Zaar chefs are so encouraging, but I would like to extend a special Thank-You to Sydney Mike, Baby Kato, and ~Rita~. Chefs like you make Zaar a great place to hang out and find new recipes and meet new friends.

A few of my favorite Zaar games and events...

MY HOSTING ACTIVITIES . . .
.... I first joined the dedicated and hard-working team of Pick-A-Chef hosts in Spring 2009. It's a wonderful event that so many chefs look forward to each year, and I was honored to be asked to return as PAC Host for the Fall 2009 round. I hope you join us for the next round of PAC, because t's a lot of fun and it's a great way for new chefs to feature their recipes.

I am very excited to be a new Forum Host for the To-Go/Camping/Picnic Forum. I am looking forward to joining in the fun and hope my contributions are positive.

I have the privilege of hosting the New Kids On The Block tag game (in the "Cooking Games with Friends" forum), where players have an opportunity to offer chefs the very first reviews of their newest recipes that have been posted to the Recipezaar website within the last month. It's a lot of fun, and I hope you join the game soon.



PICK-A-CHEF (PAC) . . .






ZAAR WORLD TOUR (ZWT) . . .




THE MANY ONGOING TAG GAMES . . .




















COOKING CONTESTS AND SPECIAL EVENTS





















AND THE SWAPS I HAVE ENJOYED

Favorite Foods:

Steak and seafood are my favorite foods to eat. As for specific cuisines, I would have to list Chinese, Mexican, and Italian as my all-time favorites. I also love dishes that are packed with garlic or basil. And raspberries...anything with raspberries, lots of raspberries! I love raspberries.

I really enjoy baking, too. I don't really have a specialty or a favorite dessert to make. They're all my favorites! For special occasions though, I like preparing Cherries Jubilee or a nice cheesecake. When we have dinner out, I really enjoy Creme Brulee for dessert. If the restaurant doesn't have creme brulee, I usually pass on dessert.

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