DonnaColorado Johnson

About Me

Hi, My name is Donna. I live in Black Forest, just north of Colorado Springs with my husband, Jim (an engineer) and Ripley (Bichon Frisee) and Bogey (miniature Aussie). We love it here--we see lots of deer, sometimes a bear, cayotes, foxes, racoons, and squirrels.

We have a huge pond on the property. The mallards are here now and they have babies every year.

I was a buyer of electronics for the aircraft and medical industries for 26 years. I guess I'm semi-retired; I work occasionally when something comes up. My last job was in a bank. When that branch closed I quit and have been looking for something to do since then, either a job or volunteer work.

Our daughter is grown and we have two grandkids, one girl and one boy. They call me Grammy Donna.

I love to paint (watercolors), read, cook, scuba dive, garden and travel. Our favorite scuba destination is Cozumel and we go whenever we can. I would love to dive the Great Barrier Reef someday.

My husband loves my cooking and always asks that I cook enough for leftovers for lunch. Once at a work gathering one of his co-workers came up to me and said "Jim's lunches are the envy of everybody here".

My mother would never let me cook, so the minute I moved away cooking became my passion. As a teen I copied recipes out of her magazines, saving them for when I was on my own. I love planning menus for the week and try to make our meals interesting and varied.

Living at an altitude of 7,500 feet makes baking difficult, even using the high altitude adjustments. Also, I love to garden, but the growing season is only three months if we're lucky. I have seen it snow after Memorial Day here.

My pet peeve is people who think they are better than eveyone else and people that tailgate me when driving.  Also reviews that state that they made a recipe but added this and changed that and say that "this way it's better" Why don't they just post their own recipe?
I do not give bad ratings. This is supposed to be a friendly community and there is no reason to hurt someone's feelings. I have been cooking long enough to tell by reading a recipe whether we'll like it or not.