lazyme

about me

Hi and thanks for visiting my AM page. My name is Vicki and I love to cook. I’ve always been an avid collector of recipes and cookbooks – in fact I have over 1200 cookbooks on my computer alone. My husband and I will celebrate our 30th anniversary in July 2008 and we love living in the Pacific Northwest where we enjoy the water, the mountains, and lots of green foliage year round. We have 4 grown children and 9 grandchildren. Fortunately, they all live close by so we get to spoil the grandkids often. I love being a grandma and I break all of the rules when the grandkids come over. If the parents aren’t around, we eat dessert first and then eat dinner a little later – shhhhh!

We also love to entertain family and friends. One of our ‘special’ parties is a cooking contest. People ask me to host one of these parties all of the time – they are great fun! We have friends who are wonderful cooks and some that barely know how to boil water. I pick a theme – Mexican, Italian, Asian, etc. and buy all of the ingredients. I play appropriate music and decorate for the theme. People are divided into 2 teams – the salt team and the pepper team. Then they ‘compete’ to make 3 original courses (appetizer or side dish, entrée, and dessert) using the ingredients that I have provided. They have to name their dishes, and see who can set the prettiest table setting too. During the festivities, I serve appetizers that go along with the theme, and host the bar to keep the fun going. At the end of the night, we vote by secret ballot for the best and the worst dishes. I give prizes for both – last time I found some dog dishes for the consolation prizes that said ‘this tastes like dog food’.

Since I’ve joined Zaar, I’ve read many interesting conversations about how people review recipes and whether recipes that the chef has not tried should be posted. This is the way that I look at these two topics. I primarily give 4-5 star ratings because I generally pick recipes that I’m pretty sure that we will like. I will give an occasional 3-star, but I feel that otherwise, it’s just my opinion and I will post comments only. Initially, I only posted tried-n-true recipes that I myself had tried. But, primarily because of some dietary restrictions now in the family, I’ve started saving some recipes that are untried - but I will always state that in the introduction of the recipe.

I love photos on my recipes and would like to thank all of you who take the time to make your family wait for a hot dinner in order to get a picture. LOL. I’m also a co-host in the Photo Tag game, so if you get a chance, come on over and check us out. You do NOT have to take magazine-quality photos to play with us. We have all levels of photographers and have a lot of fun. http://www.recipezaar.com/bb/viewtopic.zsp?t=237998&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

I’ve truly enjoyed meeting fellow Zaarites – both online and in person. I’ve made some great friends here. Thanks to all of you for making Zaar such a fun and friendly place.

I'd also like to add that I really appreciate people trying my recipes. I have a reputation for not being very timely in writing my Thank-You's... but I do get them all out eventually. By the time I thank you, you may not remember having made the recipe. LOL.

Favorite Foods:

My favorite foods are ANYTHING except black-eyed peas, beets, and Brussels sprouts! I love to do anything from gourmet meals to simple 'dump' crockpot meals. My DH and I especially like spicy foods, but I'm also interested in a lot of kid-friendly dishes that will appeal to the grandkids. My very favorite restaurant is a local one, 13 Coins, and I've never ordered something there that I didn't absolutely love.

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