Joan Brook is an Adjunct Instructor at Appalachian State University. She holds two Master's degrees in education; the first, an MA in Special Education from NTSU, and the second, an MA in Teaching Biological Sciences from Miami University. Joan has almost two decades as a teacher in elementary and middle grade classrooms. At Appalachian State University she has taught in the Commercial Photography Department in the College of Fine and Applied Arts , as well as in the College of Education. During COVID, Joan found her passion in cooking, searching for old family recipes through her personal library of cookbooks collected over the years. In doing so, Joan began taking notes, substituting ingredients and shopping as much as she could from local farmers. The two-year results of this "hobby" was the impetus for this new First Year Seminar course: "Better Than Sliced Bread: Writing Food Memoirs". In Joan's personal journal, she examines how understanding why we eat what we eat may be the way to identify the importance of food to global culture and customs.