One of the things I love to do is cook! Over the years I’ve created many of my own recipes or modified others which have become favorites at our house. I enjoy baking, too, and have a particular fondness for sourdough breads. I had a lot of fun helping to design our small-house sized kitchen, and I find it just perfect for our needs. 

I in no way consider myself and expert, but I’ve lived in high elevations for roughly 30 years and enjoy cooking healthy meals from scratch. Although I still experience a few flops, I think I’m finally getting it down. I lived at about 6,300 feet at Lake Tahoe for 24 years, then moved down to 5,200 feet, near Fort Collins, CO. Now at nearly 9,000 feet I’ve added a few more modifications to my cooking and baking. My latest kitchen appliance, the Instant Pot Ultra, has sent me off in search of understanding some of the science behind atmospheric pressure and how it affects cooking, and what adding pressure in an enclosed pressure cooker does at this elevation. Please see the posts “INSTANT POT :: HIGH ELEVATION”, and “Review: Instant Pot Ultra for High Elevation”.

There are many variables to everyone’s cooking experiences, in addition to elevation. How experienced are you? How many trials and errors have led to final success? Do you keep at it until you get it right? What kind of appliances are you cooking with: gas, electric, induction, convection, pressure? What is your elevation? What is your water like: hard well water, filtered water, community water? What is your local humidity like? These variables, in addition to your choice of ingredients and technique all make a difference to the outcome. All you can really do is keep at it; try and try again until you get the result you want.

I’ll be including some of my favorite recipes here; some are old favorites and others will be new finds as well as new creations of my own. All of the recipes included here will work well at 9,000 feet. I know because I’ve done them, and have made adjustments as needed for this elevation. I’m not an expert photographer, so don’t expect beautifully lit and perfect photos. I’m not trying to make a business or compete with all the wonderful cooking websites out there.

My recipes are done from scratch. I rarely include things like cans of soup or packets of prepared mixes. Here you’ll find streamlined recipes that assume you have some cooking knowledge, such as how to measure, what sauté or deglaze means, etc. I’m slowly adding recipes. Please come back later to see what’s been added.

One of my pet peeves is finding internet recipes with lengthy descriptions and seemingly unending photos or videos showing every detail of the process. The actual recipe is finally found minutes later, at the end of the page. Aaaarrrgghh! I’m so glad that most writers now add a “Jump to Recipe” button near the top, because I find it a waste of my time scrolling down the page to determine whether I even have the ingredients on hand. I will not include a gajillion photos of each step in the process and probably never a video. When I feel an instruction is strange or problematic, I may then provide more detailed instructions or even a photo if I think it will be helpful, other than that, I’ll spare the endless photos.