I'm just a good ol' boy from Texas. I have a beautiful wife (who's studying to be a chef), and three of the best kids any man could pray for. My Main hobby besides cooking, is Viking Age Warfare Re-enactment. So I get to play with knives in both hobbies! HAHAHA! My favorite foods to cook are a toss-up. I love to saute'... ie, Italian, cajun, asian, etc. I just love the smells, and the colors. I also love to cook and bake Ancient dishes, specifically Northern European, such as soups and stews, stuffed meat recipes, old world breads (including using such ingredients as acorns, birch bark, berries, etc), and desserts. My beef barley soup is probably my whole families' favorite...yes even my two older kids. It's a basic stew recipe which I got from this site, but I left out the flour. I found that the broth is what really interests the kids, and it really goes great with some homemade bread to sop it up with. Just recently...winter 2008...I tried to make an ancient Norwegian bread using acorns ground up with regular wheat, and barley flour, salt, honey, yeast, and water. Yeah, simple, I know, but what an amazing flavor, though really dense and filling. It really needed the soup or hot apple cider to dip it in. As a boy in Texas, my brother, friend, and I skipped school to go fishing in our pasture. While there we got too hot to fish, so we jumped in. half-way through, I stubbed my toe on a rock and picked it up. To my surprise, it was an OYSTER! Or so I thought. they were really fresh water mussells. we were so excited about getting rich, we dug up every one we could find, and took em home in the 110 degree heat, not thinking about our skipping school. when we got home and showed mom, she made us clean, and steam all 30 some pounds. then we had to eat them all as punishment, till we got sick. Darn dog wouldn't even touch 'em!