My favorite "cook book"

Living sustainably goes beyond "green living", at least for me. After seventeen years as professional staff in a major research university, I was looking for a change. My job was taking up more and more of my time and energy, particularly as I got more and more into grant writing, and yet it was less and less fulfilling. To change that, I have two simple rules--simplify life and spend more time doing things I enjoy.

When my kids were living at home, I cooked all the time and on Saturday nights, we often chose a country and cooked dishes from that country. In the process, I taught my boys how to cook. After they fledged and left the nest, I cooked less and less and spent more of my time doing work related tasks--reading journal articles, editing grant proposals, etc. and just snacking for meals or eating TV dinners. Now I have started cooking again and am enjoying it more than ever.

One of my favorite "cook books" is AllRecipes.com. It allows you to rate recipes, add recipes to share with others, search out recipes and see how others have rated them and, my favorite feature, have a recipe box where you can save recipes that you like. You can search by country, which is what my boys and I often did, or you can search by ingredient or any other key word. My youngest son, my mom and I must stay on a gluten-free diet, so today I am trying a recipe for Tres Leches for my wedding to see how I can modify the recipe with gluten-free flour that I get from Bob's Red Mill. I usually have really good luck with their gluten free flour mix and we are looking forward to trying out this cake recipe. I will let you know how it turns out!!

I will write more later on the other projects I am working on for the wedding--my dress with crocheted accessories, the ceremony, the food--all done in an effort to keep the day simple, beautiful and memorable.