(A) Deviant Zen Fork is an anagram of a portmanteau of the last names of our family and close friends, and is the home of our family recipes!

I started putting the recipes together shortly after my father, Mel Krauss, died in 2002. He was the major cook in our family and when he died, we also lost many of our favorite family recipes. I was determined to not let that happen to our kids.

In 2006 I wrote a cookbook for our family and friends, a collection of old family favorites, new dishes from friends, and favorites from cookbooks. I gave copies of the original version to my son and his friends when they graduated from high school. A couple of years later, my daughter was graduating high school, so I made and distributed a revised edition. Over the years, I’ve given out approximately 100 copies of the cookbook to family and friends, and there have been several requests for a new version. Now that we’re in the age of the internet, the new version will live here – easily found, shared and updated.