I'm a 26 year old foodie living in NW Illinois in a beautiful, quaint small town. I love to play in the dirt; vegetable and flower gardening are my favorite summertime hobbies. I work full-time managing a small company here in our town and my husband and I also own and operate our own car audio business. We are the proud parents of two adorable Patterdale Terriers (Chase & Layla) who keep us well entertained. I've been blessed with the most amazing, loving man who is my biggest culinary supporter. I could barely boil water when we first met! I've been cooking for a little over five years and I hope that my enthusiasm for it never goes away. :D I love to bake; something about it is very therapeutic. In the summer I really enjoy cooking an entire meal on the grill. I also prefer dishes that I can take my time with. I love the stirring, chopping, sauteeing, etc.... stir-fries are too hectic for me! My husband and I have work schedules that don't allow us to sit down and eat dinner together during the week, so on weekends we love to actually enjoy a meal together. In the winter we have homemade pizza on Sunday nights (Buffalo Chicken or BBQ Chicken are on the menu alot!). During the summer we love to cook outside using the grill and smoker. If we are having burgers, we always make tiny burger patties for the dogs too :) Cooking in itself is a triumph for me! Until several years ago I lived on bagels and Lean Cuisines... then I found AllRecipes and I can hold my own in the kitchen now! I've been lucky that I haven't had any 'tragedies' as of yet. Of course I've made some things that were less than amazing, but as I get more and more confident in the kitchen I find myself being able to fix dishes that aren't quite to our tastes.