Food Network Chef
Anton Brown and I
are Cooking Kindred

About Me and Chef Alton Brown

The quiz is mostly right about me. It's true that ...
* the mysteries of cooking intrigue me
* I value both the finished product and the process of cooking
* my main goal is good food

It's not so true that I don't care how long it takes. Usually by the time I get around to cooking I'm ready to eat so time is of the essence. To facilitate putting a meal together in the shortest time possible I've made a quick easy recipe generator.

Check it out - 500,000 one-pot dinners: rice, beans, chicken sausage and 1 million dinner menus.

Try this muffin recipe

Gwen's Not-Right Amaranth Muffins

I'm a Circumstantial Eater

I took a free Eating Style test at Tickle.com and this is what it said about me ... Gwendolyn, you're a Circumstantial Eater.


Circumstantial eaters like you don't make food a priority in their lives. In fact, it's probably more of an afterthought as they eat based more on their circumstances. Because of this, you probably end up eating whatever's quickest, or easiest to prepare. Unlike people who plan meals a day, or even a week, in advance, it is not unusual for you to be already hungry when you think about food. But once this realization hits, you want something to eat but don't want to spend a lot of time preparing it. Your tendency is to choose foods that come in a container, or with a set of instructions. That way, all the planning and preparing is done for you.

While it's fine that you place an emphasis on other areas of your life, you could also be missing out on not only on some of the enjoyable social and physical highs of eating well, but also on nutritional value as well.

The Eating Style test report even included a reading list:
Reading List

Kushner, R.F. & Kushner, N. (2003). Dr. Kushner's Personality Type Diet, New York: St. Martin's Press.

Mehrabian, A., & Riccioni, M. (1986). Measures of eating-related characteristics for the general population: Relationships with temperament, Journal of Personality Assessment, 50, 4, 610-629.

Wiatt, C. L. (1995). Eating By Design, New York: Pocket Books.

Williams, S.S., Michela, J.L., Contento, I.R., Gladis, M.M., & Pierce, N.T. (1996). Restrained eating among adolescents: Dieters are not always bingers and bingers are not always dieters, Health Psychology, 15, 3, pp. 176-184.

Confessions of a Food Network Novice

Yesterday was the first time I watched an entire show on the Food Network. I watched Iron Chef America. The secret ingredient was turkey.

It's strange watching people cook. It's even more strange to listen to people talk about what they just ate while you're sitting there wondering why you didn't cook yourself a meal while watching TV.

Do you remember the 1985 movie Desperately Seeking Susan? Madonna was in it. Rosanna Arquette's character was unsatisfied with her posh life and she was always in the kitchen watching some cooking show and making a mess.




Gwen's blogging about exercise and weight loss - go comment