drbabs

drbabs is an optometrist from New Orleans (now Long Island-based) who always has a lovely story to share with each recipe -- whether it's her mom's Pecan Dainties or Aunt Julie's meatballs, or an elegant bread pudding served at the legendary Commander's Palace restaurant. And she digs deep -- pulling out a Cajun red beans and rice recipe she learned from a colleague in 1983 and resurrecting a long-since-forgotten ex-boyfriend, whose best friend's onion soup remains steadfast in her life (and now, in all of ours!). She also finds creative ways to work around (and test the boundaries of) her husband's food aversions -- a challenge familiar to so many of us with loved ones who aren't always as adventurous as we'd like them to be. drbabs' love and dedication are perhaps no better expressed than in her What I Do For Love Bran Muffins -- just witness the number of bowls she's willing to dirty on a weekly basis to save her husband from the scourge of grocery store bran muffins. Keep fighting the good fight, drbabs! Check out her profile and fan her here.

Read drbabs' profile Q&A below:

• What is the strangest food you have ever eaten?
  When I was a child, I used to dip raw spaghetti into chocolate sauce.
• What do you cook when home alone?
  Lately eggs over easy on top of some kind of greens (arugula or spinach) with buttered toast.
• Your most treasured kitchen possession:
  kitchen aid mixer
• Your ideal meal:
  For a week in the summer we stay at a beach house on the Florida Panhandle with my entire family. We take turns cooking dinner. All those dinners are my favorite.
• Something you'd like a chance to eat or cook:
  Once when I was little, my grandmother (now deceased) made me grits with roast beef gravy. Although I currently don't like grits, I remember that as one of the most amazing things I ever ate. I'd love to be able to eat it again.
• The number of bottles of wine you own:
  around 20 (tomorrow it will be 19...)
• The ideal number of guests for a dinner party is:
  8
• Kitchen pet peeve:
  Cleaning the kitchen by myself.
• Your favorite cookbook:
  Barefoot in Paris by Ina Garten. Home Cooking and More Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin. Everything by Maida Heatter. For basics, How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. (And yes, I have How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, which I do use occasionally.)