I am in love with good food, and if you like good food, it's not going to cook itself!! So, I've grown to really enjoy cooking and creating masterpieces to share. It is pure bliss when I have a delicious pile of food to scarf up...that I created! Cooking and food goes quite well with my other hobby in life: jogging. My twin sis and I recently ran the Portland Marathon. I compete with myself trying to make the cheapest, healthiest, tastiest dinners. I consider it a bonus if I can meet all that criteria...while not having to take a trip to the store. I'm a whole-grain goo-roo, and try to add "superfoods" as often as I can (fish, veggies, low-fat high-protein, anti-oxidants, you know, the good stuff). I love cooking venison steaks with pan gravy and garden green beans. It's something I grew up with that's comfort food to me. Another tradition I'm going to take on this year with the help of allrecipes.com is CANNING. The second REAL pumpkin maple pie supreme I made with the "back-up" crust. (see below) I told my family I was making REAL homemade pumpkin pie this year for thanksgiving with REAL pumpkin (pumpkin maple pie supreme from allrecipes). After spending the day roasting the pumpkin, preparing the pie filling, and baking, I pulled the pie out of the oven to find scrambled eggs resting on top of my time-consuming pie...all because I didn't stir the filling and the eggs had cooked in a separate layer on the top. Yuck!! "Scrambled-Egg-Pumpkin-Pie, anyone?" Luckily, I made a back-up crust and roasted extra pumpkin. The second pie was perfect, and no one saw the scrambled egg pie!!