Karen Jean Matsko Hood has always enjoyed cooking and experimenting with recipes. At this time Hood is working to complete a series of cookbooks that blends her skills and experience in cooking and entertaining. Hood also entertains large groups of people and especially enjoys designing creative menus with holiday, international, ethnic or regional themes.

She is publishing a cookbook series called the Delights Series in which each cookbook emphasizes a different topic or theme. The first cookbook in the Delights Series is titled, Coconut Delights. Hood is also working to complete a series of Hood and Matsko Family Cookbooks with many recipes handed down from her family heritage and others emerging from more current family traditions. She has been invited and spoke as a guest speaker on talk-radio shows and has been invited to speak on various topics.

Hood was born and raised in Great Falls, Montana. As an undergraduate she attended the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, Minnesota and St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. She also attended the University of Great Falls in Montana. Hood received a B.S. Degree in Natural Science and minored in both Psychology and Secondary Education from the College of St. Benedict. After graduating, Karen and her husband taught science and math on the island of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Hood also completed postgraduate classes at the University of Iowa, in Iowa City, Iowa. In May 2001, she completed her Master’s Degree in Pastoral Ministry at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. She has also taken post-graduate classes at Lewis and Clark College on the North Idaho College campus in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Hood is currently working on research projects to complete her Ph.D. in Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington.

Along with her husband, thirteen children and foster children, Hood currently resides in Greenacres, Washington. Her interests include writing, teaching, and volunteering as a court advocate in the juvenile court system for abused and neglected children. Hood also is a literary advocate for youth and adults. Her hobbies include cooking, baking, photography, raising Icelandic horses and Icelandic sheepdogs, indoor and outdoor gardening, and cultivating unusual flowering plants and orchids. Hood also enjoys observing hummingbirds and other bird-watching activities. Hood finds all aspects of nature precious and demonstrates a passionate appreciation of the environment, and a respect for all life.

You may contact the office of the author and cook at:

Karen Jean Matsko Hood, M.A.

507 N. Sullivan Road, Suite, A-3

Spokane Valley, WA 99037-8531 USA

Phone: (509) 927-0404 / Fax: (509) 927-1550

Website: www.karenjeanmatskohood.com

E-mail: Karen@karenjeanmatskohood.com and karenjmatskohood@hotmail.com

You may order Hood’s other books including poetry, fiction, and non-fiction for adults and children, by requesting them from your local bookstore. Please ask your local bookstores to carry these.

You may order Hood’s other books including poetry, fiction, and non-fiction for adults and children, by requesting them from your local bookstore. Please ask your local bookstores to carry these.