damienducks

about me

Currently living in St. Paul, MN; I work in the legal publishing field. I enjoy cooking in my spare time (well, and my not-so-spare time, too...my hubby, who also loves to cook, accuses me of planning way-too-elaborate weeknight meals, but he never complains once he starts eating!)...I love to experiment with new recipes/styles of cooking...I do have a couple staple cookbooks that I use for reference (though these change with the season and my mood!): Simply in Season, Betty Crocker (love those cooking charts!) and Hot Sour Salty Sweet, a great reasource for all kinds of Asian cookery.

I try to eat as healthfully as possible, and I try to make a point to source my ingredients as locally as possible, as it is better for not only my health, but also for the local economy and eco-system. I'm very lucky to have the wonderful St. Paul farmer's market available year round (though in the winter my choices are limited to fresh eggs, meat of all sorts, cheese, honey, baked goods...limited, right?...poor me!...in the summer the market is bursting with all manner of vegetables, and I've never met a vegetable there I didn't like). I also eat a good deal of game meat (elk, deer, antelope) because my family (who live in MT, my home state) ship a box of hunting season bounty to me every year. The rest of my food comes from the co-op market. I will literally try anything once (though I will admit some things go down easier if you don't know what it is before it passes your lips!)

Favorite Foods:

My favorite foods, now that's a tough one...lately my mission has been to become a crock-pot-cookery-queen (with a little help from Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Recipes For Two, being there's just hubby and myself to feed, and we cannot eat the same dish for an entire week!) I love foods that are complex in terms of flavor but simple in terms of ingredients. Things like Tom Yum soup, Pad Thai, grilled cheese & red pepper sandwiches, cranberry pistachio lime cookies, curry roasted nuts, yam and squash quesadillas, etc. You get the picture. My favorite restaurant is my kitchen!