ABOUT THIS COOK:

I'm a second-generation food writer, my mom started writing Kitchen Parade when I was a baby. I'm also the 'veggie evangelist' at A Veggie Venture, the food blog about vegetables and write "Special Request," the weekly "restaurant recipe request" column for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. I cooked my first Thanksgiving dinner on my own when I was just 16!

• What is the strangest food you have ever eaten?
  We've cooked a whole buffalo two years in a row now --

• What do you cook when home alone?
  no cooking - just salad!

• The ideal number of guests for a dinner party is:
  6 or 8 at home, 200 outdoors!