Danielle

• I'm 25 and live with two college students in a house with 11 people total - we're all friends and eat together frequently. I usually make an entire recipe and it's gone before we can have leftovers.
• I have been with my boyfriend for 4.5 years. He's a vegetarian and enjoys eating whatever I make. :)
• I stopped eating meat sometime in April after watching a disturbing documentary. Sometimes I'll have meat if there's no other option or if I'm really craving it, but for now I consider myself a less-meatarian (like Mark!) who eats fish and other seafood. I just like to eat more vegetables and grains to have a smaller impact on the planet.
• Eating vegetarian has made me love so many foods that I always hated before including: broccoli, artichokes, spinach, peppers, and asparagus.
• I occasionally bring lunch to work but I mostly snack throughout the workday (5-2pm) and cook for dinner.
• I mostly shop at Whole Foods and the local market.
• Bridgette got me this cook book for my birthday. Even though I didn't really cook meat before, it's made being vegetarian and cooking for myself so much easier!!

Bridgette

I love Betsy's idea of sharing about who we are as cooks so here is my rundown:

• I am also married to my best friend/love of my life and we will be married for 10 years this May!
• we have one 2.5 year old boy who is an extremely picky eater
• I do not work outside of our home, but I do have obligations outside of the home three days a week (preschool for two and bible study for one) that makes planning ahead or last minute recipes a must
  
• my husband eats leftovers for lunch 5 days a week so this plays a major role in my meal planning
  
• we also work on what I consider a fairly conservative budget for groceries
• my husband has type I diabetes so as much as I love russet potatoes I try to cook low glycemic-index foods
  
• I really agree with Betsy here: I really enjoy cooking, but don't want to spend all day, every day doing it
  
• I am relatively new to the "unprocessed food" movement but I love it's repercussions that eliminate or at least lower the amount of crazy ingredients that we eat
• I also love to shop and buy locally grown produce
  
• I got my copy of HTCE for my birthday last year (August 2009) and I cook from it at least once a week and ususally much more than that
• I have used it more than any other cookbook since it has graced my kitchen counter
• really the only other cookbook that I go to regularly is "The Complete America's Test Kitchen" for fancy recipes like pizza bianca and New York style crumb cake
  
• Betsy was the first person to tell me about this cookbook and since then I have bought two copies to give to friends

It was my idea to start this blog mainly because there are so many recipes in this cookbook and with several of my friends owning and using it I wanted a place for us to share our experiences. 

Betsy

I thought it might be fun to share a teeny bit about the chefs who are creating these reviews (hoping that our fearless blog administrator, Bridgette, will be okay with this idea :) ).

I always like to know what kind of cook is recommending recipes: is he/she feeding a large family? a single person? coming in after a long day's work? generally picky? likes to try new things? Etc.

So, here's a wee bit about me (Betsy) and the kind of environment in which I'm testing these recipes and giving them a thumbs up or thumbs down:

• married to her best friend/love of her life for 7.5 years
• mommy to three exuberant and active children: almost-3-year-old twin boys; 4-year-old daughter
• stay-at-home mom (kids are home all day, too)
• hubby frequently gets in late from work and we have to reheat his dinner
• working on a fairly conservative budget for groceries
• hubby and I love ethnic food; our children do, too, and are particularly fond of Asian food
• I really enjoy cooking, but don't want to spend all day, every day doing it--especially given my three children running around
• I also place a high priority on feeding my family unprocessed/commercially prepared foods when possible; to that end, I bake a lot of bread, cook my own soup, make my own pizza, etc. when feasible--this means we eat more simply now, but it's still tasty!
• before this blog began, I'd started compiling a list of the recipes I'd tried from HTCE and a quick rating. Here's that list. Someday I may rate them all in more detail here.
• I've owned HTCE for exactly one year (bought it in January, 2009) and cooked from it more than any other cookbook this past year (of the 40+ that I own).
• I "discovered" it at a friend's house while I was babysitting for her. It was the first edition. I borrowed it and tried out a few recipes (like the biscuits!!). Then, I spent some time perusing the 10th anniversary edition at Border's, trying to decide if I really needed another cookbook. What swayed me were the extensive section on beans (rare in most cookbooks), the many charts and tables, and the overall simplicity. I'm so glad I took the plunge and bought it!

One final note: Bridgette and I are in complete agreement on this. We use Bittman for our normal, everyday cooking. It's perfect for that. If I want a showstopper recipe, I'll use one I've already tried and liked, perhaps, but I'm more likely to turn to America's Test Kitchen or one of my Southern Living cookbooks. Those are more "company food." (They're also more complicated, more expensive, more fussy, and so forth.)