Indiana State Fair Girl

about me

I love cooking. I've been cooking since I was 6 or 7, when my mom bought me my first cookbook. I went wild trying out new ideas! My mom and dad are both great cooks and their moms are great cooks, too. We love living in Indianapolis, Indiana, where we cheer on the Colts and the Indy 500. I also like to read, play soccer and babysit my 3 little brothers and 1 little sister. (my adorable jr. chef baby brother Caleb is above!)
I like listening to my favorite band, Newsboys, on my MP3 player a lot.
As in my new name, I LOVE the Indiana State Fair, where my favorite Aunt Debbie works, getting sponsors for the Fair. Our house is only about fifteen or twenty minutes away from the Fair, so we go a lot. This year I might even get to work for my Aunt Debbie at the Fair as an intern a couple days during the Fair, which I'm totally hoping I can do.
My Mom and I are a lot alike and we both like most of the same things - especially the beach!!! My parents don't use Recipezaar, but I love it and check it almost every day for cool new recipes!!! My mom and I are great friends. We like lots of the same things. My brother Daniel and I are also great friends. When we were younger we wished we were twins...we still do, actually. When we were younger we actually DID look like twins, except that I was older and bigger. Now I have blond hair and he has brown hair (we used to both be blonds), so we don't look that alike except for our faces. A few things we don't have in common are: he likes bananas, Sam and I can't stand them; he LOVES the World War II game "Axis & Allies," Sam does, too, I haven't learned how to play (it's a really complicated game...about 50 pages of rules) but hate history and especially wars...not interested in the game.

Fave Games: Clue, Risk, Canasta, and Heroscape. My brothers, Daniel, age 10, and Samuel/Sam, age 8, play Heroscape with me almost every day. We are crazy about the game. We have both the Master Sets and five extention packs, but are planning on getting at least four after Christmas. We love building, getting new characters/game sets, and WINNING. I encourage all kids ages 8 (maybe 6 or 7) or older to give this game a try, like ask for it for a gift or buy it. This is a great game. We have two friends(brother and sister, ages 14 and 12) who also love playing and have some extention packs but not the 2nd Master Set. I admit, I'm a bit of a tomboy, at least when it comes to Heroscape and some of my personality, but I do like some girly things, NOT nail painting, hairstyling, the color pink, or that type of thing. The only common girly thing is getting new clothes. I LOVE CLOTHES SHOPPING!!!
Fave Characters in Heroscape: #1 Agent Carr, #2 Raelin (the new one especially), #3 Krav Mega Agents, #4 Runa.

I AM IRISH AND PROUD OF IT!!! (BY THE WAY, I LOVE POTATOES AND HAVE BLOND HAIR...SPECIAL THANKS TO MY IRISH HERITAGE!)

Favorite Foods:

CHOCOLATE, Mexican foods...I love making (and eating) soups, and toast with my favorite bread, (bought at a store, shame on me) Ezekial 4:9 bread. My mom found it in the "Biggest Loser Cookbook," which we got just to see what it had. Ezekial 4:9 bread is the best bread I've ever tasted! It doesn't have any flour in it, it's gluten free, we buy it at Kroger, which is about five minutes aways from us. I enjoy just about anything hard or challenging, like making homemade bread withOUT using the bread machine for the rest of the family. I also like to put designs on cookies, frost letters and stuff on cakes, etc. When I was about 7 and got my first cookbook, I made some peanut butter cookies that my brother (then 4 or 5) went crazy over. He still loves them today and I made a huge football shaped one after his last football game this year.
Favorite Cooking Tip: For meatloaf and hamburgers and just about anything calling for breadcrumbs, use oatmeal (same amount) in place of the breadcrumbs. This saves a bunch of time!

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