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Jill Anderson - Jill Anderson

Cooking has always been my hobby and I began entering national cooking contests in my 20's. After winning second place in the state of Kentucky in the Cattlemen's Association Beef Cook Off in 1995, I decided to enter the Pillsbury Bake off and ended up winning an honorable mention. Years of entertaining friends and family with dinner parties and cookouts began to pay off when people started asking me to cater for them. With no formal culinary training, I relied on what I had always known; top quality ingredients, time tested recipes and my own creativity. After moving to Jacksonville, Florida in 2003, I began reading and studying everything I could get my hands on about clean eating, organic foods and nutrtion in general. The catering jobs continued to come in. Even after moving to Orlando, Fl with my husband in 2006 it didn't take long for word to get out. I started teaching healthy cooking classes for Dr. Matthew Herba (chiropracter) at his healthy living seminars, working with local organic co-op Get Green Organics as their executive chef and giving demonstrations for health spas, civic groups and private parties. I have been a participating chef and featured speaker for both Central Florida Veg Fest and Earth Day. In between catering, teaching, freelance writing and researching, I began to gather the recipes I had written over the years and put them together into my first cookbook, "The Homegrown Goumet Cooks For Everyone." A year later I wrote my second book, "The Homegrown Gourmet Cooks for the Vegan." I am currently testing recipes for a third cookbook. My articles can be seen at wwwezine.com and I write an exculsive food blog for our local newspaper which can be found at www.cape-coral-daily-breeze.com and maintain a facebook fan page, a foodbuzz.com profile, weekly youtube cooking segments on my own channel (thehomegrowngourmet) and am featured on ifood.tv.net. My middle daughter is the Sous Chef at the Hilton in Cincinnati, Ohio. I am married to a USN Retired Rescue Swimmer named Roger, have three grown daughters and six step children. Currently, our 10th child; a rescued Golden Retriever named Rosie is the only one at home. We live in Cape Coral, Florida. If you would like to reach me send emails to sjscates@aol.com or visit my website www.thehomegrowngourmet.com and also my blog at www.thehomegrowngourmet.blogspot.com