TasteTester

about me

Our family moved to Orlando, Florida, from New York in the 90's, so I've brought not only many of the recipes my family has passed down, but found some great Southern dishes as well.

In my spare time, I like to try different types of crafting, especially for the holidays. I also enjoy gardening, although I don't do as much in Florida until the fall/winter because of the heat and humidity here in the South during summer.

One of my hobbies is collecting Dickens Village pieces. Over the years my collection has grown so much that I finally can't fit anything more on my "Dickens Village" display table we haul down from the attic each year, so unfortunately I've had to stop buying new houses, accessories, etc., but I still like to create a different village setting each year.

We have three cats: Reggie, who's very nosy; Whitey, who follows me around like a dog; and Russell, who meows all the time and only wants to eat.

We also have several hermit crabs. We started with one we purchased in St. Augustine and enjoyed them so much we've added more. They are quite interesting to watch, although they molt several times a year and we don't see them for a month or two. My son likes to occasionally put them on the floor in a straight line and have "hermie" races. The little ones always win.

I'm teaching Michael, my youngest son, how to cook and he's prepared several simple recipes I've found here. (Maybe he'll get to the point where he can make a few dinners for us — wouldn't that be great?)

Above is a photo of Michael with the first cake he ever made. It had a whipped cream filling and icing, and the layers started to slip when he held it up for the picture, but I told him the most important thing is the taste — and it sure was good.

I like to try recipes representative of different countries — there are so many great dishes I've made from RZ that I would never have known about, and I rate recipies as follows:

5 stars — Superb flavor; recipe ingredients and amounts need no changing for our family's taste; will definitely make again and again.

4 stars — Great recipe, enjoyed by all; might make a minor change to recipe, but will make again.

3 stars — Good, but would only make again with a fair amount of tweaking.

2 stars — We would probably never make it again — we just didn't enjoy the recipe, but I wouldn't post a review of 2 stars unless I knew of some specific changes sure to improve the recipe for everyone, not just for our tastes.

1 star — I've never made a recipe that fell into this category, and if did I wouldn't want to rate something so low that it might discourage a person from posting more recipes.

Favorite Foods:

My favorite foods are steak, seafood, veggies, and anything hot and spicy. I've also made some vegetarian dinners for my older son's girlfriend; they've tasted really good and are a healthy alternative to all the "meat and potatoes" dishes I grew up with. I've found lots of recipes with grains, tofu, etc. here and try to incorporate a few into our weekly meals.


MY PAST SWAP PARTNERS HAVE BEEN:
"B" swap - Mandy from Oz

Casserole Dish Swap 2008 - ChamoritaMomma

Aus/NZ Recipe Swap #14: diner 524, Leggy Peggy, and Mandy from Oz

Aus/NZ Recipe Swap #15: heydarl, Leggy Peggy, mummamills, and The Flying Chef

"C" swap — ~Laury~

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