Russ's Ravings: I Want To Steal Your Holiday Recipes

Editor's note: The following is Patch Field Editor Russ Crespolini's, hopefully, weekly column. It is reflective of his opinion alone.

My family is not blessed with cooks in the house. I do my best, but I only do so by default, because my wife is what I like to call a "streak cooker."

It isn't as exciting as it sounds.

No, it simply means that my wife cooks when she is on a cooking streak. And that means she has a recipe she wants to try. So she does. And she cooks only that for like three weeks to two months. Turkey chili? It will be in the fridge for a while. Strange crock pot beef? Get used to it. Right now we are on some tomato juice based soup.

And when the streak ends, she goes back to eating cereal.

For myself I think I would be considered a decent cook in like, the Navy. Or possibly running a chuck wagon in the old west. I try to make decent meals, I do a lot of prep work for them on the weekends to make the weekdays a little easier.

Egg cup omelettes for breakfast, different hot lunches based off of the school cafeteria menu recreated for my daughter, and a rotating dinner menu of sloppy joe's, "thanksgiving dinner," pork chops, pasta, fajitas and a crock pot experiment or two.

I tell you all this because I do not possess culinary skills. In fact, my daughter said while we were watching a cooking show where contestants shared their home influences she would have none to share.

But I want to try to change that, and I am asking you to assist me.

I want to steal your holiday recipes. And then I want to try to recreate them in my home and I will report back, literally, on how the experience went. But in order to do that I need your help. I need you to share them with me.

So what do you say? They can be simple, they can be complex, they can be anywhere in between. I will choose the top few that come in that I think I have a prayer of duplicating and I will give it a go.

So what do you say? At the very least you will get a wonderful sense of schadenfreude watching me waste my time, money and possibly hurt myself in the process.

Send your recipes to russ.crespolini@patch.com.

And wish me luck!

Russ Crespolini is a Field Editor for Patch Media, adjunct professor and college newspaper advisor. His columns have won awards from the National Newspaper Association and the New Jersey Press Association.

He writes them in hopes of connecting with readers and engaging with them. And because it is cheaper than therapy. He can be reached at russ.crespolini@patch.com