Zurie

about me

This is me, with my grandson, in April 08.

We live on the sea now, after my husband retired, which is great! I admit I find our tiny village too quiet, which is why I can be found on Zaar so often!

I've graduated from teacher to journalist to food editor, and from there to college lecturer to author ... a "checkered career", as they say!




I have taken part in many tag games and other competitions, in PAC 2006, in RSC 8, 9 & 10 — but was too stupid to get the banners in here. At last I have one to show!

Favorite Foods:

Favourite comfort food is plain:

Well-flavoured oven-roasted chicken with potatoes alongside, with green bean stew and our unique round gem squash, with a red-ripe tomato-and- onion salad.

A deeply-flavoured fish soup in winter, with home-made bread — peasant food. Sheep offal. (Oh, sorry about that, please don't puke!!)

Fresh Cape Rock Lobster, fresh oysters. Fish just off the boats (we have a large variety).

Cold-smoked salmon, salads, arugula, green asparagus, vine-ripened tomatoes with sweet basil ... (The list is endless!)

Most of the time I cook with what I have at hand. Where we live, I don't always have the choice of "fine dining" ingredients, unless I go shopping far afield!

We have excellent wines in South Africa, and naturally we drink them!

HOW I RATE A RECIPE NOW:

I've learnt a lot in the years I have been a Zaar member!

A good and tasty, reliable recipe gets 4 stars, but a 5 really has to be an almost perfect recipe, no matter how simple! I do tweak recipes sometimes, but in small ways. It's very unfair to change a recipe and then leave a snarky review.

If it's a 3, I'll spell out in the review exactly why, which at least gives the cook an idea why the recipe didn't rate higher.

If I test recipes in a cooking contest, I might make recipes worth no more than 1 or 2 stars — and I'll explain exactly why — but normally I would pass recipes by if I can see it will not work well for me.

http://