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About the Author                       

A comment from Ed McManus:

"I think your site is great!  But I'm perplexed because there is no identification of who you are.  Perhaps you don't want that known, which is OK, but you might consider putting something on the site that explains just that, i.e., Sneaky Kitchen was created by a housewife in Wichita, Kansas who decided she wanted to share her ideas about healthy eating with the rest of the world.  I specifically wanted to know because I plan to include a reference to your ten commandments in a company newsletter I'm involved with (giving you credit),  and wanted to say something that would explain to readers what Sneaky Kitchen is."

I'm glad you enjoy the Sneaky Kitchen, Ed.   You or anyone else is welcome to reprint anything from the site;  please just give credit by listing the location:    http://www.sneakykitchen.com.

Biographical information:

My name is Bess W. Metcalf.   Originally from a small town near Ithaca, New York, I've lived in Miami, Florida for more than fifty years.  My husband Floyd, from Kentucky and Evansville, Indiana, gladly tests my cooking three times a day, and helped immensely getting started with many of the more technical parts of the site.

Both my mother (Alice Hine Williamson) and paternal grandmother (Ellen Annis Church Williamson), as well as many other relatives, cooked healthy diets with lots of whole grains, vegetables and fruits.  My mother instilled those values and habits in her kids.   My own qualifications are, simply, as a mother who cooked a (mostly) healthy diet for her children (in the early days on a very slim budget), as a grandmother, as an observer of other people's diets, and as a meal provider whose "victims" generally rate me as an excellent and innovative cook  (except for the occasional spectacular failure).    I have studied quite a bit of biology, psychology, sociology, language, marketing, computers and other subjects. I've played various musical instruments and have studied piano to the concert level.   I enjoy cooking and eating.  Having lived in and visited a number of places, I've watched people from many social, geographic and ethnic groups cook, and tasted their foods.  Living in Miami so long, I speak fluent Spanish and tend to have a Hispanic slant to my cooking.  I read a lot, watch cooking and science shows on cable TV, and for this web site, do research on the internet.  I also spend quite a bit of time experimenting in the kitchen.

I have many opinions and ideas I believe are valid, although I don't have a degree.   But then, experts with titles are always disagreeing with each other.  We can learn from them and from each other.  In the end you have to depend on yourself--  your own research, your own knowledge and your own budget-- to determine what is the best diet for you and your family.  

To badly paraphrase Irving Berlin's heroine Annie Oakley in the musical "Annie Get Your Gun":   "Anything I can do, you can do better....".

As for the reasons for developing the web site:    First, I hope I can contribute something.  Second, part of the reason for the site (obviously) is commercial; otherwise I couldn't justify the time and expense required.  Last, I like to write and to do computer programming, and this gives me a vehicle to do both.   See the page entitled "Why the Sneaky Kitchen?" for more information, and "Assistants" for photos.

Please be advised: this is your site, too.  Contribute and help others, learn and enjoy!