Eve Smythe

It seems the road less traveled is often the most rewarding. Rae-Anne Tran was raised to embrace food by preparing everything from scratch. That doesn't mean bread prepared from ready-made flour. Tran was taught the traditional method — making flour ...

Perfection. It's not easy to spot, but Pam Inoshita's Lemon Crinkle Cookies might be the closest thing this side of heaven. "I think I've come to the point where I like how they taste," Inoshita said. "I've gotten positive feedback."

John Edwards is an innovator who enjoys creating dishes that he's never prepared before. Although his guests have complained that he "never makes the same thing twice," Edwards stays true to his philosophy: "I like to create stuff."

It was an enchanted evening. In a quaint restaurant in Munich, Germany, Lorie Davis and her husband-to-be, Curtis, dined on what would be their dinner to remember — an exotic gruene (green) lasagna. "I asked the waiter what made the ...

Healthy food fuels a healthy body, but convincing youngsters of this is difficult, at best. Somehow, Andrea Lunde has managed to do the impossible, and she loves to count the ways she makes nutritious food enticing to the juvenile set. ...

Just when you thought you'd heard it all about hosting successful parties, here comes Tami Osborn with a whole new set of intriguing tips. Every party requires a welcoming scent, Osborn believes, so having a savory dish heating in the ...

Keeping it simpleBlue heaven: A funny thing happened at the fair. Upon entering the Ventura County Fair's home economics building, Susan Garcia learned about the cake judging contest.

Leslie Reuter brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to each dish she prepares. She has spent nearly a lifetime cooking, inspired by her father, who worked his way through college as a chef and then received a cooking certificate ...

One of the burdens of a healthy lifestyle is the dilemma of making healthy food tasty. Erynn Smith believes her recipes may change the long-held misconception that a healthy diet is hard to swallow. Even children have enjoyed her kale ...

Call it intuition, but Teri O'Connor always seems to have the right answers. What can enhance an oatmeal cookie recipe? O'Connor was determined to find out, so she began making subtle adjustments to the original recipe.

To understand what drives Jennifer Dobbie, one need look no further than her 200-pound bounty of recently harvested tomatoes. "Never have to buy any stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce or sun-dried tomatoes this year," Dobbie gladly acknowledged.

It wasn't life on the farm, nor being around some of the best home cooking in the area. No, it was a basic cooking class that changed Vickie Mahan's life. Her decision to enroll in an elementary culinary arts class ...

The kid who cooked as a teenager never stopped trying. In high school he worked as a cook's helper at a Chinese restaurant, where he polished his culinary skills. But when he landed a job at General Motors and raised ...

Across the fairway, over the bunkers and far past the rough, delicious scents are often wafting from Sue Manion's country kitchen. It might be coconut oatmeal, molasses or ginger cookies, all fresh from the oven.