Allow me to introduce myself. I am Robin Garr, a writer and food-and-wine hobbyist. I'm not a professional cook, but I'd rate myself an advanced amateur; I love to get into the kitchen and throw together good meals, and to talk about creative cookery --especially with an ethnic twist -- with others who share this passion.

I've been cooking seriously for 20 years or more, and enjoy a great division of labor with my wife: I do the cooking, she does the dishes, the laundry, the garden, the windows ... and bless 'er, she doesn't seem to mind!

As a devoted traveler and omnivorous reader, I've long enjoyed sampling the world's cultures, and in particular its cuisines, and matching good food with the kind of excellent but fairly priced wines that I celebrate on my Wine Lovers' Page. Over my years of fooling around in the kitchen, I've devoted particular attention to French, Italian, Chinese, Mexican and Cajun cookery and many more, but I find that as time goes by, I've evolved more of a personalized "fusion" cuisine that incorporates elements of some or all of these cuisines with my own inspirations. I've moved in the direction of quick, simple cookery, and -- as most of us Baby Boomers are doing nowadays, I'm paying a lot more attention to holding down the oil, butter and other fats than I used to do.

I'm also particularly interested in discovering particularly good matches of food with fine wines and beers. In most cases, I'll mention with each recipe the beverage I enjoyed with it, and/or recommend other wines and beers that I think would serve it well.

The recipes on these pages are my own tested inventions (although I try to be scrupulous about giving credit where the inspiration came from a cookbook, magazine or friend, even if I altered it considerably).

I hope you'll enjoy cooking and sharing these recipes as much as I've enjoyed creating them; and if you do, or if you have similar goodies that you'd like to share, I'd appreciate it if you'll take the time to let me know.