Who are the Foxy Foodies?

Heather – I started cooking when I was 6 years old, making pancakes every Sunday morning with my mom. Soon thereafter, I became obsessed with food, making gourmet 10-course meals every chance I got. As I got older, I started collecting recipes and in my senior year of high school, made a binder of all the recipes I wanted to try. Fast forward to 2008, I now have two binders, one with recipes I have already made and would make again, and the other with recipes I still have yet to try. This dinner night has only intensified my love for cooking and I look forward to it every month.

Kristin – My love for food is only natural growing up with a family in the food industry. My dad owns a food distributor, and I work for Nestle. Cooking on the other hand, did not go beyond making Easy Mac until my junior year in college at Michigan State. I began with a few of my mom’s recipes and then tried out some of Rachael Ray’s. I became addicted once I realized how easy it was to make a healthy (ok- some not so healthy!) fabulous dish at half the cost of a restaurant. When Rissa had asked me if I wanted to join their dinner night I knew it was a perfect fit. One of my favorite parts of dinner night is stirring up a fun cocktail recipe to start the night off with. I still have a few things to learn in the baking department!

Nicole – I hail from a line of “baketresses”, and have been baking with my grandmother and mother since I was little. My sweet tooth is also evident in my cookbook and recipe collection, where books and recipes on desserts outnumber all other categories about 2:1. I have enjoyed learning many new recipes with the ladies the past few years, although since I was so busy the past few years the most cooking I did each month was at our dinner night. Now that I am done with grad school I want to reacquaint myself with my kitchen, and go back to remake some of the recipes that we have made together.

Rissa - I am proud to say that the very first dinner night was at my house! ever since, I have been what can be called the "date nazi" in making sure that the next night is quickly booked on the calendar the day after the last one completes. Good fun, good food, good company. We've talked through our job, relationships, engagements, somehow while still whipping up some crazy 7 course meals! As for my start in cooking...it begins with my obsession of eating! When I was younger, I cooked savory recipes with my mom and learned about baking with my stepmom. As I started to live on my own in school, I realized that I needed to find a way to make the things I wanted to have at a restaurant..couldn't afford to eat out financially or physically as much as I craved! I soon became obsessed with finding more recipes, reading reviews, collecting printouts, etc. I think I have upwards of 5,346,192 recipes in my house. But I will get through them! I mean, we all have to eat, right? So why not make it fun? :)