What You Can Expect from The Zzyzx Road Kitchen Chronicles

Well, my name is Zanne, and I cook. A lot. Really, a lot.

For the most part, I create my own recipes, using prior cooking skills or just winging it with a bowl and whisk. Sometimes, it's a disaster (we don't talk about the Carrot Cake Wreck of 2010), or the smoke alarms go off. It's all about experiments with interesting, unusual, and tasty fresh ingredients. I'm Quebecois (French-Canadian), Shoshone, British, and Cherokee, so I use a number of traditional family recipes, as well (usually with updates), but I also get inspiration from middle eastern, eastern European, Latin, Caribbean, and northern African cuisines.  I am at that point in my life where I will try anything that I'm not allergic to.  Okay, maybe I'll draw the line at deep-fried tarantulas. 

I'm a spice nut. Goddess. Expert. Spice Whisperer, whatever. I just "know" how to blend, my husband says. He calls my cooking style "jazz," picking a vegetable or ingredient I've never tried, some exotic grain, or spice, and just go with it, like pickup jazz. He's a music professor, in case you were wondering.   Technically, he's an ethnomusicologist, but he's also an archaeologist, which totally fulfills my childhood Indiana Jones fantasies.  We also have a daughter, 11-year-old Bev, who is taller than me and is the most adventurous eater that I have ever seen.  She's funny, slightly dorky, beautiful, and

So, expect a lot of unpretentious, easy to understand recipes, with lots of tips on "in case you don't have this" or "you can totally substitute this," and maybe some techniques explained, where/how the meal came to be, and shortcuts, if you're a working gal or guy, like using canned instead of dry beans.  Not my preference, but not everyone works in front of their cable box, able to whip, mix, stir, or mash at a moment's notice.

I try not to use canned or prepackaged food very often, and my kitchen and recipes are chock full of dried beans, chickpeas, gorgeous grains, and fresh vegetables and fruit.

I don't really focus on low-fat, but most of my dishes are healthy. Most of what I cook IS low in fat (and sodium), just because of my tastes, but I can fry chicken, make a kick-ass pot roast, and love a great cheeseburger just as much as the next girl (or frat boy).

I guess it just boils down to me loving the entire process of cooking, from planning to shopping at farmers' markets and other shops to whisking to seeing my husband grin when he takes the first bite. I'm rarely happier in any other place.  I'm not sure that I can explain it any other way.