Mims & Squims

about me

My Life:My husband & I have been married for 7 years and share our home with 2 dogs, 2 rats (no that's not a typo), and a tarantula. I work full time, cook constantly, and stay up way too late every night surfing 'zaar.

Why I cook: At my doctor's insistance, I changed to a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet. Apparently it's unhealthy to eat entire sticks of butter as a snack...who knew? So that meant lots of home-cooking would be the only way to avoid a lifetime of Lean Cuisine frozen dinners. Fortunately, my husband agreed to go healthy with me.
I started cooking out of desperation---eating out was no longer an option---and also just to prove I could. I'm the only person I know who has started a kitchen fire using a pop-up toaster, so it's not like anyone expected me to cook anything edible. But apparently I have a knack for it because we are having the best meals of our lives!

Cooking my way
I try to make everything from scratch to ensure we're eating only foods that are all-natural, organic, whole grains, and processed/refined as little as possible. Cooking from scratch not only lets me use low-fat and low-cholesterol natural ingredients, but it gives me lots of opportunities to experiment and come up with my own recipes.
My biggest success has been with fresh ingredients, mostly herbs. I never understood why people bought (and spent time chopping) fresh herbs when they could just buy a cute little jar of the dried stuff. Now I'm always working over a cutting board, and my meals are impressing everyone in my family.

Current Obsession: SALT! Alea Hawaiian red sea salt, Fleur de Sel, Cyprus black flake salt... It's kind of like margarine vs butter---margarine is a nice substitute, but it's nowhere near as good as the real thing. Since discovering gourmet sea salts, plain old table salt has disappeared from my pantry. I try my fancy salts on everything, and you wouldn't believe the difference they make.

My Soapbox:
OrganicsOver the past 6 months or so, we've gone almost completely organic. Organic steaks, environmentally friendly laundry detergent---even my pet rats eat only organic fruits & veggies. Paying a little more is worth it to find healthier food and support small farms. I drive past 6 major grocers to shop at a coop grocer, and I love the sense of family I find there.

Favorite Foods:

Tex-Mex is by far my favorite, but the more recipes I try, the more I find I like. And my Beautimous Squims (pictured) will eat just about anything.

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