These recipes are quite large, to feed my hungry family. With a hungry husband, and 3 teenage sons, they all have healthy appetites! If your family is smaller, you might want to make sure you have plans for the leftovers or cut the recipes in half.

I live in Colorado, about 5,280 feet - so it's high-altitude! Usually adjustments only need to be made with baking; but be careful about heat. I may use medium - to medium high and you might not need to go quite that high.

My family likes meat. I have found when experimenting with new recipes I use less vegatable and pasta - and increase the meat. If you're not a big meat eater - you may want to adjust - or get your recipes somewhere else - GO MEAT!

I only use 80/20 ground beef. Sometimes I use 85/15 (Ground Chuck) if I can find it on sale - and I don't make any adjustments.

I love to use fresh herbs. I started growing my own herbs about 8 years ago and in our climate have had great luck with oregano and thyme coming back every year. Parsley and sage grow very easily in a garden but unfortunately I didn't plant soon enough this year so I missed out. My thyme plant also didn't make it through last winter (it was a colder winter than usual) - so I will have to replace that. I don't have luck with basil so I use usually use dried. Even if you're not much of a gardener, I strongly recommend trying your hand at herbs. They are so easy to grow and you will save money not having to buy them (either dry or fresh). It is also quite easy to dry your own herbs at the end of the season so you can have quite a bit on hand for awhile. Only plant herbs you plan on using. If you don't use tarrogon - don't plant it! Do a little research because some herbs can take over your gardens and you'll have a hard time getting rid of it (like mint).

I rarely use canned tomatoes. I like Rotel style tomatoes, but you will notice in my recipes I use tomato sauce. We're just not big on crushed or canned tomatoes - so if you like tomatoes you might experiment a little in recipes that I call for tomato sauce.

I love cooking meat and deglazing the pan with wine. About a year ago I didn't have any white wine to deglaze the pan for Spaghetti Carbonara (see my alphabetical list of recipes) but had a beer in the fridge so i used that. It was delicious! Now I usually deglaze with beer (it's cheaper too). You can experiment with light, medium and dark beer for a different flavor.