Welcome to our blog!

This is the beginning of our brand new cooking club - The Curious Cooks. I would like to take a brief moment to spotlight the seven lovely ladies in our club.

Madelynne Brown - from Salt Lake City, UT.  I am a therapist, artist, and foodie wannabe.

I love to make desserts, but stir-frys are also my specialty.

I don't usually cook with recipes. I remember the first batch of cookies I made by myself - I left out the baking soda, and they ran all over the pan. I was so disappointed, and its really hard to stir baking soda into stiff dough!

Patti Cook - I am a lover of variety and crave it in food, people and experiences. I graduated with an undergrad in technical writing and after doing that for a while, I moved into planning events for corporations and associations. Now I stay at home with my two kids and try and plan our daily menus while working around meltdowns, my husband schedules and life in general. I like to cook and enjoy raw ingredients and simple, clean favors. Don't ask me to bake though - I have NEVER had a cookie or a loaf of bread turn out like I had hoped. Yes, I said NEVER....but hope spring eternal.....

My disaster story started when I was banned from the kitchen at a young age. My mom gave my sisters all cooking lessons. When it came to me, I made one dish - homemade mac and cheese - and for some reason it turned out so bad that I was banned from cooking lessons and the kitchen in general! Good thing I married later in life and had lots of time after leaving home to practice cooking. No one since has banned me from the kitchen....so I call that a success!

Aliisa Leon

Janna Mathews - Hometown is Kingman, Arizona. Although now I have lived in the Salt Lake Valley so long, it is starting to become my home. I am currently the Production Supervisor in the Marketing Department for SOS Staffing.

Its hard to pick a favorite food, but I would have to go with watermelon. Nothing can beat a perfectly ripe watermelon. My favorite cooked food however would have to be cheesecake. A yummy crispy crust, with the velvety texture of cheese, egg and cream baked to perfection. hmmmm now I want cheesecake.

My diaster story is a dinner I was making for friends and roommates. I burned the rolls, meat and overcooked the broccoli. It seemed like everything I was doing messed up! I was trying to plug ahead though and thought maybe a little parmesan sprinkles would be ok over the vegetables. I was trying to break up the clumps by hitting the container on the counter. What I didn't realize was that the lid wasn't on very tight. So with the first bang, the lid came off, and I flung Parmesan cheese all over the kitchen. So now not only was my food ruined, but now the whole Kitchen was covered in a fine dust of parmesan cheese.

Glory Rascon

Amanda Wallace - I grew up in a small town called Searcy, Arkansas. I moved to Utah in 1996 and despite my dislike of snow I stuck around. I work as a manager in Dermatology at the University of  Utah (for the past 7 years).

Favorite dish to make is chocolate pecan pie.

Cooking disaster story - I made the perfect cherry pie for a church activity. It was beautiful. Before I left I nibbled on a tiny piece of crust that had broken off. Thank goodness I did! It was super salty. I had accidentally doubled the amount of salt in my crust. Moral of the story - always taste your food before you leave the house!!

Sara Wright - Growing up in San Antonio, Texas, I never thought I’d spend a majority of my adult life in Washington, DC, which is where I began working for Marriott Hotels. When I moved to Salt Lake four years ago, I took my job with me and am fortunate enough to work from home. I’m a manager of special projects in the International Training department and LOVE to travel. Especially internationally. 

My favorite thing I like to make is a bowtie pasta and broccoli dish. And a citrus rice salad. Love the melding of flavors.

My cooking disaster story involves a cheap metal saucepan, a stove burner, oatmeal and molten metal…all while I was a freshman at BYU. It’s always a good idea to remember when you have something cooking on the stove. Just a note to self. One Saturday morning, my oatmeal breakfast turned into a disaster area when I left the cheap metal pan burner on our electric stove in Heritage Halls and got involved in another project. Fifteen minutes later, the smoke alarm informed everyone in the apartment that all was not right in the kitchen. Smoke was pouring from the saucepan and as I lifted it up, the molten metal that dripped from the now bottomless pan (!) met the floor with a sizzle and left its mark. Luckily for all concerned, my roommate no longer wanted her pan and the linoleum was being replaced in all of the apartments later that year. Whew!