I've worked for General Mills (the fine folks who own the Pillsbury brand) for more than five years in marketing, but I have been obsessed with Pillsbury for most of my life. I had acquired numerous Pillsbury Doughboy™ hats, t-shirts, figurines, kitchen tools and what-not long before I came to work here. Given that, the rare opportunity to go to the Pillsbury Bake-Off® Contest to just hang out and write about it is the ultimate work assignment for me and beats the butter out of sitting at my desk pounding out spreadsheets and PowerPoint decks.

I grew up in Alabama and spent as much of my childhood in my mother's and my grandma's kitchens as they would let me. I think of myself as a PG-13 foodie -- I love to cook almost as much as I love to eat, but I don't consider myself a culinary expert. I'm always looking for new tricks and ideas that I can use in the kitchen to step up my game without getting into anything too complicated. I read more cookbooks than novels, watch cooking shows while I'm working out and live for clearance sales at the local kitchen store. When I don't cook, I am just as happy to get steak enchiladas at my favorite Mexican joint down the street as I am sitting down to a 4-star meal at a fine restaurant in San Francisco as long as the food is good and the company is better. I'm looking forward to sharing with you.

~ DyShaun

Click here to view my Bake-Off® Contest Blog