Born in Chicago, grew up in NJ, moved to New Berlin, NY in 2001. For 10 years, I've been a pharmaceutical microbiology lab tech, and some chemistry. Email me with A/R in the subject line at wendiehutchings@gmail.com. Love to experiment in the kitchen, using my imagination with recipes as templates, cooking with what's in the pantry. Favorites are anything savory, love chicken, love fresh ginger. I try to stick close to lower carb, high fiber--sadly the husband and I like carbs...such is life! Love, love baking bread, but fresh warm bread and butter...so good yet so bad. In my family of origin, Mom was a fantastic cook. I learned from her to make a great corned beef and cabbage in the slow cooker. Also learned buttercream frosting, love it to this day but have moved to carrot cake w/ cream cheese frosting to reduce sugar intake a bit. Finally feel proud of my cooking almost every day, biggest triumph has been asking for and finding countless cooking tips at AR and other places online. From a family of lovable know-it-alls, asking was difficult - in the beginning! Way, way overcooked an expensive roast beef, ended up using it for beef stock! Made a very mealy mac and cheese. My husband is so polite about these things! :-)