We (Ruth and Nancy) have been fast friends and DIY-project buddies for years before joining AllRecipes as staff members. Now we work together and still do projects together, like this blog. Soups, breads, main dishes. We like trying to make at home in our own kitchens something that we really enjoyed when we were out, like bagels, or cheese, or chocolates. Midwestern and Cheap. Not exactly cooking, but the time we drove to Eastern Washington and brought back a trunkload of grapes on this theory: people have made wine for centuries--how can it be hard?--and then we actually ended up making decent red wine (Ruth actually read up on it, and Nancy just went to the local beer and wine making supply store every couple of weeks and asked Bob "what do I do next?". We forgot in the end to compare them side-by-side, but they were both pretty good. Ruth: Let's see how the Four Things and a Chicken recipe I'm making today turns out, before we jump to any hasty judgments.