ceruleanseven

about me

I live in a small University town with my husband, our cat Minion, and piranha Pinchy (witness the staredown above!).

My husband is a graduate student in microbiology and will be getting his Ph.D. this summer. I have a degree in Anthropology which I apply very loosely to what I do. I work at the University of Wyoming doing transition stuff for incoming freshmen. I have a lot of variety in my work, which I love.

My favorite cookbook is: my mom. Next favorite is recipezaar- I learned about this site eavesdropping on my yoga instructor a few years ago, and now it's the only place I look for new recipes!

I love trying new things, and going new places. I'll try anything twice. In the past I have gone skydiving and speleunking. My next goal is trying white water rafting...and maybe grad school.

Truthfully, I don't really enjoy cooking all that much. I don't really dislike it, I'm just not mad about it. My least favorite part of cooking is when things do not work out. It makes me a bit...edgy. Like when I cook meatloaf for over an hour, cut into it, and it's still underdone. Or when I drop an ENTIRE casserole inside of the oven, splattering the contents ALL OVER. This has happened more than once...and is when I call husband and say "bring home dinner. I'm out"). My favorite part of the process is eating/trying what I've made, and maybe getting a compliment from the other half.

Things I wish I could do: cook rice and bake bread. It doesn't matter WHAT I try, my rice is always WET (though my husband doesn't seem to mind). How cool would that be if I could make fluffy rice?! This could have something to do with our high elevation, but it's frustrating nonetheless.
I'm scared of using yeast in a recipe, so any bread I make is a quick bread! Consequently, I'm left out of the wonderful world of homemade bread. Oh well. Maybe some day I'll get brave enough.

Favorite Foods:

I really like vegetarian fare, although I adore meat too much to abandon it. I ADORE a good sandwich. My favorite restaurant is Panera! We don't have one anywhere near where we live, but go whenever we can.

My rating scale:
***** I honestly don't see a reason not to give 5 stars if I found the meal perfectly palatable and enjoyable (even if I change a couple things due to availability).

**** Something (flavor, prep) stood out at me that I found a little weird.

*** Probably won't make again, though I certainly liked aspects of the meal.

** Didn't like a thing, though I had high hopes

I won't give less than that, mostly because it's probably due to the fact I selected a recipe that branched a litte TOO far out of my comfort zone.

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