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Bacon makes everything better!

Fried cheeseballs at Green Gables in IL. Yum!

Cheese popcorn. Hee hee.

Dark chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting!

Caprese salad!

I'm definitely not the best baker in the world, but I try. Last Thanksgiving was my first attempt at making real pie crust, and it was mostly a success. I didn't let the dough firm up enough in the fridge, so it was difficult to roll out, and the crust wasn't fully cooked on the bottom b/c the crust was too thick. But the pumpkin pie filling was delicious and everyone seemed genuinely pleased with the results. It was not a total success, but I'm no longer afraid to make real pie crust, even w/o a food processor!

Definitely strawberries!

In lieu of making lemonade, I love the strawberry lemonade that you can get at certain restaurants. I will definitely have to try making it at home sometime!

A Steak 'n' Shake double steakburger and their awesome chili.

When I was little, my grandma used to make me a simple lunch of toasted cheese sandwiches with creamed corn on the side. She would toast the bread and then put the entire sandwich in the microwave to melt the cheese. I always thought that was such a novel way of making a cheese sandwich! The corn was always a little salty (from the can), but I remember that it all tasted sooo good.

One of my most memorable experiences had to do with those taco kits that you can get in the store. My dad was in charge of cooking the meat, but he forgot to mix in the seasoning, so we basically ended up eating hard-shell tacos with ground beef. Because we didn't realize that he'd forgotten the seasoning until we dug into the food! I don't recommend it.

His recipes with few ingredients and quick prep allow me to have a nice meal at home after a hard day's work as opposed to picking up take-out. My wallet thanks you, Mark!