Greeny4444

about me

I am an active lady, and I am not the top chef in the world, but I can hold my own. I love making things that remind me of when I was little, and I love learning new things to cook (oh, and I almost ALWAYS make my own little tweaks to recipes I learn....I can't help it)!

I love to bake, probably more than anything else in the kitchen. I always volunteer to bring desserts to family gatherings, but that plan was foiled with all this new-fangled "healthy eating" talk. Now I am forced to find low-fat, less-sugar, lightened-up, gluten-free, lactose-free, no-egg versions of the traditional chocolate chip cookie. I love to bake cookies and quick breads and bring them to my friends when they're at work, even though it leads to them playfully cursing me, between bites, for making them fat on the bike-riding off-season. All I ask is to continue to enable the obesity "epidemic" by feeding people one homemade fatty cookie or one slice of creamy cheesecake at a time.
Okay, I know I must've made at least 3 enemies just then. Probably all doctors. Hehe...

Moving right along...I would've gone to culinary school to be a pastry chef if I didn't have the job I do now. I love baking difficult things that take a lot of time. It's so flattering and such an accomplishment when something you have created from sugar, eggs, etc. draws "oohhh"s and "ahhh"s.

I love RecipeZaar...for the reviews, the wonderful recipes, the inspirational ideas, the forums, and the games (Pick A Chef [PAC] is really fun, everyone should participate in it at least once). I think it is so cool that it is worldwide (as the Internet, in general, is...duh...), and I think THAT is awesome because it allows for varied ethnic foods to be presented that I would not have otherwise known about. I have learned so much about cooking (and foodie history, even!) from people here, and my husband actually jokingly called me Betty Crocker the other day - though I don't know if that's a good thing or what....

I come from what some might consider a large family (4 brothers and a sister). Most of them have kids, someday those kids will have kids, and one day we'll rule the Earth! Haha! I live in the beautiful state of Colorado, and I love to bike ride. I like to read, go for walks with my husband, hang out with friends, watch movies, go to the gym, play video games (especially Rock Band 1 or 2 or any of the Guitar Heroes).... all that stuff we kids do.

September 15, 2009: THANK YOU to whoever purchased a premium membership for me!!! I LOVE this website, and now you are my favorite person - and I hope my husband didn't just see that. Hehe.


Thanks, Mama_Jennie, for adopting me!


Thanks, Axe, for adopting me!


Thanks, Coffee lover, for being such an awesome swap partner!

Favorite Foods:

It would probably be easier to say what I don't like.... which mainly consists of raw celery. YUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*How I rate recipes:*
This process involves big gray areas for me... Sometimes recipes are super good, sometimes I make a few modifications (either to make it healther, or because I don't have a particular ingredient), and sometimes I feel like I would rate it higher but didn't because I didn't know what to expect. ALSO, the 4- and 5-star ratings often get confused. What I mean is, sometimes I make a bunch of changes and still rate something 5 stars. I know - I'm weird. So here it is:

***** - You are the divine entity of this particular recipe. I will DEFINITELY make this again and throw all other references to this particular dish that I currently possess in the paper shredder.

**** - The recipe was a great idea, and I probably used it as a base, making a bunch of tweaks (enough to maybe post the recipe as my own, but I would never do that). Therefore, my 4-star reviews tend to be novel-like with all the changes, often boring people before they get to the end (probably much like the explanation about how I rate recipes). LOL... I still would make again - keeping my personal changes.

*** - I probably either didn't know what to expect or this recipe wasn't really to my/my family's/our friends' liking. This is the lowest I go. To me, 3 stars says, "Thank you for the idea, but this is a recipe I probably would not make again."

** and * - Well, these are too low for me and I don't use them.

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