@Sweet for an Illino
I live in beautiful Southeastern Illinois, about 3 hours straight east of St. Louis. I work in the supply department of hybrid-seed corn company. I'm also the wife of a grain farmer whose favorite foods are anything with BEEF since he grew up raising Polled Hereford. I learned how to cook as a child through my local 4-H club, where I proudly received a Best-of-Show ribbon on my Blueberry Muffins. My most memorable kitchen mishap was at 12 years of age, I mistakenly used salt instead of baking powder in a batch of Chocolate Chip Cookies --- Let’s just say the cookie jar sat full. In college I lived in a cooperative sorority house where about 50 women shared cooking and cleaning responsibilites. It's here where I stopped leveling cups of flour with a knife, and found a new way to cook. Just throw something together with whatever we have! Some meals were interesting, I will admit. Substituting chocolate syrup for cocoa powder in brownies, and serving them at a formal meal created interesting conversation at the dinner table! My favorite cookbook would be The Joy of Cooking. My hardback copy naturally opens to pages on cooking hardboil eggs and baking pecan pie. The simple, precise directions and a few illustrations, always lead to excellant results without needing color photographs and fussy comments.