Cooking Corner - Lime Chicken with Avocado Salsa

Written By: Ellen Kleven  |  Posted: Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

Amanda Parramoure spends her workdays repairing books and doing secretarial work for a local business, but she has always liked the idea of someday getting paid to do one of the things she is most passionate about - cooking. Maybe she will be working as a chef one day down the road, but for now she focuses on working hard where she's at and doing her best to love her two children, caring and providing for them. Sometimes life is difficult in Amanda's world-a world where she runs her own business from home (Tightly Bound Books), drives over half an hour to her other job, runs her two children to and from daycare, spends time helping other people (especially concerning their souls), and tries to be an excellent mother to her children. Even with this brisk pace, she manages to make some delicious food and the recipe following her story is proof enough. As her recipe indicates, Amanda is inclined toward Mexican cooking (and eating!-her favorite local restaurant is El Patio) and she loves to work with fresh vegetables.

Amanda grew up with two brothers and she recalls their mom being good at incorporating the children in cooking and kitchen work, specifically remembering the times they would spend making granola together. Home schooling made it possible for Amanda to watch The Martha Stewart show when it would come on at 10:30 as part of her home economics course. She especially loved this time, even as a young girl, and vividly remembers impersonating Martha Stewart and putting on her own cooking shows. By the age of nine Amanda was creating in the kitchen without assistance and has never since ceased. She grew up using the standby cookbook Better Homes and Gardens-her mother's copy is in total disrepair, the way a good cookbook ought to look, with splatters all over the pages-and she still uses it for basic recipes. These days she also loves to use the online website allrecipes.com for its practicality, range of recipes, and all of the wonderful reviews submitted by other cooks.

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