About

About Dawn

My love of cooking started at an early age. I never had an Easy Bake Oven, because my parents felt it was not a safe toy. Instead, I was allowed to use the real oven…with adult supervision, of course!

My father was – and still is – my biggest fan. (Ok, my husband might be edging him out a bit!) Even the most bizarre concoctions I’d come up with my dad would eat with great relish! Now, of course, he doesn’t have to spit his food into a napkin before telling me how delicious it is.

I’ve often been told I missed my calling. I should have been a chef, not an electrical engineer. I don’t know what that says about my skills as an engineer! Well, I’m sure it’s meant as a compliment. :)

About the Site

I’ve had a recipe site for years, though it’s only been in its current form since May 2007. I started with a single page of recipes on my “personal” web page. It was just something I did for my own amusement. It soon grew to the point where I decided to have each recipe on a separate page. It got to be too much coding, and I decided a blog format would be more efficient. I’ve imported all the old recipes to this site. You’ll notice if you view the posts from that first month how boring they look…almost no pictures and no commentary. (I’m updating them, though, as I find the time!)

Often times I’d modify the recipe to suit my tastes. Eventually I started coming up with my own original recipes as well, although I still like to share great recipes when I come across them! Now and then I come across a recipe I like so much, I don’t change a thing! I mention where each recipe comes from in its post.

Nutritional information, when available, is calculated using the Nutrition feature in Mariner Software’s MacGourmet Deluxe software and should only be considered an estimate.

Recipe Formatting

Several people have contacted me recently regarding the formatting of my recipes. Most of my recipes are still formatted manually by me. I’m slowly going through them to add in the proper coding so they’ll be recognized by Google’s new recipe search.

I mentioned a plugin in a recent post of mine. It’s called hrecipe and was written by Dave Doolin. The plugin is still a work in progress. Dave has been great at listening to user feedback and tweaking the plugin to behave the way users would like.

Meanwhile I created a template of my own to use in conjunction with his plugin. You’re welcome to use the same template, but I offer it without technical support. It can be found HERE. Remember you need to install the hrecipe plugin first, or this template will not work.

Equipment Used

All the photography on this site is my original work. I have no training in this department, but I think I’m getting better with practice…and, of course, there’s always Photoshop. I recently purchased a DSLR camera and a micro lens. It’s the first SLR camera I’ve ever used, so there’s a bit of a learning curve for me. I’ve finally figured out how to use the manual settings, though! Here’s a list of the hardware used for the photos:

Computers Used:

27″ iMac 3.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i7, 16GB 1333MHz DDR3 memory
15″ MacBook Pro, 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB 1067MHz DDR3 memory

Camera and Equipment:

Nikon D80 D-SLR, 10.2 MP DX-Format CCD
Lenses:
- AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G
- AF-S DX Nikkor 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR
- AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED
- AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED
- AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED
Filters:
- Quantaray Pro-Digital UV Filter
- Quantaray Circular Polarizer Filter
Lighting:
- Nikon SB-800 AF Speedlight
- A pair of Lowel EGO Digital Imaging, Tabletop Fluorescent Light Units
- American Recorder SIB-101CS Classic Photo Studio-in-a-Box
- Sunlight, whenever possible
Sunpak Pro 523PX Carbon Fiber Tripod with 3-Way Pan/Tilt Head
Nikon ML-L3 Wireless Remote Control