Hi there!

[Cathy Stapleton]

I just registered yesterday and thought maybe I should post something here. I'm not a professional cook, I just enjoy cooking. I also like to read - lots.

I work part-time as a book store clerk, and I'm currently writing a novel based on a real-life event. I'd tell you about it, but then I'd have to shoot you!

I don't seem to be able to find an avatar that I like that isn't being used by someone else here, so I hope that anyone that's using this one isn't bugged by my using it. I think it's cute, and appropriate considering my reading habit.

[Mezzaluna]

Cathy, thank you for introducing yourself! I'm also an avid home cook and book lover (and have an unpublished novel done). What do you love to cook?

Please make yourself at home. Don't miss the articles and reviews at the main Chef Talk site.

Welcome!

Mezzaluna

[Cathy Stapleton]

Hi Mezzaluna,

What do I like to cook? Nothing all that fancy - just plain old "down-home" style cooking mainly. Things that fall into the category of "Comfort Food". Like the Almost Cabbage Rolls recipe I posted further down.

I've got a couple of superb potato recipes I'll post here sometime, and a fantastic one for French Oven Stew. I also make a mean chili as well as tomato-based pasta sauce. I'll post a recipe for Russian Borscht in the Recipe section today, as well as one for a salad mold using beets.

I've also started to make a Norwegian potato flatbread called Lefse. I'm 1/4 Norwegian and all my relatives in Saskatchewan get together and have a Lefse-making bee every so often. I recently found a second-hand Lefse griddle and decided to try to get the tradition going here with the Norwegian contingent that live here. It's a tricky thing to master but we're trying.

So what do you like to cook?

[Mezzaluna]

Cathy,

I grew up in a home where my mom, an excellent cook, made recipes from just about everywhere. In the 60s when "ethnic food" was hard to find where I grew up in the Midwest, she was making Greek, Italian, Latin American and Chinese dishes as well as our family's Eastern European dishes. So I'm pretty eclectic in my cooking too, but I tend toward Italian, Asian and French/continental food. I don't bake much, but I can make a fairly good loaf of challah if I have the patience to let the dough do its thing.

I hope you enjoy it here!

Mezz

[Rob MacAlister]

Wondering whether you are British or not! Found the below as well.....

"A man accustomed to American food and American domestic cookery would not starve to death suddenly in Europe, but I think he would gradually waste away, and eventually die."
'A Tramp Abroad', Mark Twa

[Cathy Stapleton]

No, I'm not British, but I do have a significant portion of my roots in Great Britain.

My father's parents were both born in the UK, my grandfather was from a place called Risley-Beds in England. And my grandmother was born in Cardiff, Wales; although her father was of English extraction and her mother was Welsh Roma.

And my mother's, mother's, mother was Scottish. I descend from the Clan Forbes. My great-great-grandfather was a coachman at Balmoral Castle during Queen Victoria's reign.