I am thrilled to be able to combine my love of the written word with my passion for food in my job at Allrecipes.com. I have a background in publishing and in the food service industry, both "front of the house" and back. I graduated from the Culinary Institute of America's Baking & Pastry program and have worked as a baker and pastry cook in Wisconsin, for a season at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, and at bakeries in Seattle. My baking career really began when I was in first grade and my family was living in Germany. Every morning my father and I would walk to the local bakery for bread and an afternoon treat, like Apfelkuchen. I love dark sour breads, baking anything with yeast in it, and anything that requires hours of patient work, like croissant and Danish doughs. Food we ate while camping. Animal pancakes. My mom's meatloaf. My grandfather's breakfasts. I think a baker's real triumph is getting to work at 4 am, day in and day out, so that there are beautiful pastries and loaves of bread on display when the bakery opens three hours later. A personal triumph was making my own wedding cake. Heavens! Too shameful to list: all that wasted dough, those burnt nuts, spilled milk to cry over....