Houmous Monster

about me

I'm a second generation expat. I was born in Canadian but after a fair bit of moving about, I now reside in Northern England. We recently bought our first house, where we live with our two cats Mac and Phouka (poo-ka).

The photo is of Dan & I in Niagara Falls, where we got engaged on Canada Day, 2006. We were recently wed on May 3rd 2008.

In my spare time I'm learning to cook, I take ballroom dancing lessons (it's great exercise), and I've taken up cross-stitch again. I'm on incapacity so don't work.

My interest in cooking developed due to health issues like food intolerances and Fibromyalgia. However I also live with a carnivore who's always happy to test my cookie recipes for me. So slowly I'm trying to build a cookbook of things I can make and eat.

I don't have the energy to cook lots. I generally can do one activity a day, and making a recipe counts as one activity. I'm working towards OAMC meals so one day of cooking will feed us a few times.

I don't mean to be anti-social in not making lots of others' recipes, it's just they have a very high cost to me. I do try to photograph all the recipes I make though. I hope others find this helpful.


Reviews:

5 Stars - This is now a regular at our house!
4 Stars - Fine recipe, just not to our personal tastes.
3 Stars - There's something major I'd want to change.
2 Stars - Edible but really didn't like it.
1 Stars - Created recipe as posted, couldn't eat it.
No Stars - Generally notes on how changes failed. No fault of the recipe.

Please feel free to honestly rate my recipes. I don't expect everyone to like the same things as us. I'd prefer any future Zaar members to have honest opinions to judge from before they take the time and effort to make a recipe.

Favorite Foods:

Although I can't eat it often, I have a love of traditional English cooking. While I find it full of rich flavours, many other people consider it bland. As such, generally I'm not fond of strong spices or herbs. I'm also seem to be missing a sweet-tooth. The odd treat is nice, but I dislike sweet flavours in my regular foods.

Many of the recipes I post are likely to be Free-From recipes, where often the ingredients may be lacking due to necessity. I'm always searching for easy recipes which DON'T include : Tomatoes, Potatoes, Dairy, Gluten, Meat, Seafood, Quorn, Peppers, Aubergines & Hydrogenated Oils/Fats. I also have to be careful with eggs, garlic, and some onions.

http://www.kitchencritic.co.uk/