My name is Chantelle, I am originally from Seattle, Wa (Small lake town of Kirkland to be exact). Have been married to my husband David since 2005, We have 2 wonderful toddlers, Lauren (2yr's) & Dylan (3yr's) which are the most amazing little people you could ever come across. I LOVE food! I love cooking and will almost never follow a recipe to a T, I have to throw in my own piece to make a dish interesting. I love creating new dishes by blending my favourite flavours and textures to create amazing unique dishes. I love trying new restaurants and ethnic world cuisine. I am in the process or writing a cook book, which should be done and ready for publishing by the end of 2010. Even if I have to self publish, that bad boy is getting out to every kitchen in the US and more! I love to experiment with almost anything! I have a little more love for baking than cooking in general, only because baking is more precise (the control freak inside comes out...LOL) and most people light up when they are presented with sweet baked goods. I tend to stick to healthy dishes but, sometimes indulge in fully loaded ~*bliss*~ type dishes that are oooey gooey with cheese or deep fried to a heavenly crisp. Presentation is also a HUGE thing for me, I am naturally artistic with food. I like it to look as good as it tastes! Ohhhh my goodness, I have sooooo many! Baking cookies with my mom and the special recipes that were made on certain holiday's. Every year my uncle would make Lefse` for Christmas dinner's and that was some of that "hell yea!" type of food. I host many theme type dinner parties (larger groups of 40 people or more) and have had no real pro training but, I can envision how I want it and am able to execute it almost better than originally planned. In short I can suprise the hell out of myself when it comes to detail and planning an awesome dinner party! I make sure everyone feels like the guest of honor and have never had a party where someone didn't ask for me to plan one for them (of course with two toddlers, I usually have to decline.:( Wow, that whole description made me sound totally into myself but, hey if you have "the gift" you have "the gift" right? LOL:) Well, let's see how much time do you have? This could take awhile.... My first experience cooking dinner by myself, came around when I was about 11 yr's old. My parent's left for a date night leaving me with the babysitter. She pretty much let me roam wild, so I somehow ended up in the kitchen making my parent's a 5 course meal. The main dish was a meatloaf, I decided to add my own "flair" to the dish by layering lunchmeat, spinach and teriyaki sauce and rolling it up like a swirled loaf. Needless to say the taste test didn't go so well but, the thought and creativity that went into it was more than amazing in my mother's eye's! The family still laugh's about that meal.