Nominated by Katie Kelly Bell

"Laura and her family spend every weekend driving from Atlanta to their Blue Ridge lake house. They frequently invite guests to share their home, and the cooking is always a highlight. Our family is often on the guest list, and we have had ample opportunity to watch Laura in action.

"She can handily take a pantry of mismatched items and prepare something delicious. I have never met a person with such an open mind about food. Laura will cook anything. She often has to, as her husband is an avid hunter and she is called upon to transform various local fauna into tasty dishes. Her in-laws regularly provide her with bounty from their farm, and she manages to create numerous variations of the week's featured vegetable.

"Whether she's serving up a platter of spicy venison tacos to a posse of eager toddlers or elk burgers to her guests, Laura makes sure everyone is happy and well-fed."

Laura Powers Hill's reflections on food go much deeper than her cooking style, which, she says, is "fast, loose and easy."

She maintains a lifelong respect for the food she puts on her table and an appreciation of the natural processes and the people that play a part in putting it there. Add to this a sense of adventure, creativity and curiosity, and you have a cook who can spend a season thinking up 50 ways to serve an eggplant or take a few moments to whip up a stew of braised wild rabbit with kalamata olives.

Family: "I'm married to Alex, and our kids are Elena, 5, and Graham, 2. I grew up in a very small town in [central] New York called Pine City. I'm from a family of six children. Many of the people I grew up with hunted and had summer gardens, and I learned the value of using what was fresh and available. It is a good thing I had some experience, as I married a Southern boy who is an avid hunter and fisherman and whose father has the biggest garden you ever saw."

Career: "I own and run a custom-design jewelry business."

Hobbies: "Exercise! This is an essential hobby if you like to cook and eat as much as I do."

Who taught you to cook? "My mother taught me. She is an excellent cook and produced consistently fine meals for eight -- no easy task. Her cooking was straightforward but delicious and she was open-minded about trying new things. I remember her wok phase: sukiyaki, teriyaki, every kind of -aki you could think of. She served us fresh vegetables and fruit and taught me to enjoy the garden produce and fruit that were in season because it was good for me and because I wouldn't be able to get them later, a lesson I am teaching my 5-year-old now."

For whom do you cook? "I cook primarily for myself and am blessed with a husband who eats anything. I also like to cook for small groups of friends. My sister and two of my best friends are excellent cooks, and I love to cook for them because it becomes a group project and I get great suggestions and ideas."

Cooking style: "Fast, loose and easy. I rarely cook things that need more than 10 ingredients. My crockpot is my friend, and I'm learning my way around a pressure cooker."

Favorite thing to cook: "I most love to cook the things my family grows or brings home. My father-in-law has a prolific garden. New ways to eat eggplant was my project for this summer. My husband is an avid hunter and fisherman, so I cook a lot of game. Game is not easy to do well, but I like the directness of it. Kill it, cook it and eat it. My kids are very aware of where our food comes from and what it takes to get it to the table. We do not take the animal or fish for granted, nor do we waste it. "

Most memorable flop: "Early in our relationship, my husband and I made a deal that if he hunted and cleaned it, I would cook it, no matter what it might be. The first time he brought me squirrels, I made quite a tasty stew out of them and was very pleased with myself. My husband seemed to enjoy them but waxed poetic about his Aunt Martha's fried squirrel. I thought, 'How hard can it be to fry a squirrel?' I fried them like I would chicken. Those squirrels could not have been eaten by a pack of ravenous dogs. It was like trying to bite through a steel-belted radial. We ended up ordering a pizza. I found out later that Aunt Martha boils the squirrel for 90 minutes before frying it."

Strangest thing you ever cooked: "Frogs. Whole frogs. Legs, heads, everything."

If you could cook for anybody, who would it be? "My husband's grandmother. She was a fine country cook. She fed her family, a crew of fieldhands, and anybody else who was hungry three times a day. She was a truly generous spirit and a damn good cook. She died a few months before we married."

-- Betty Parham

MAIN DISH

Mediterranean Shrimp

Makes 6 servings

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 10-15 minutes

When I first started to cook my husband called me the 'diet police.' I thought that butter and cheese were the devil's playthings and my cooking was extremely lean and very boring. I have learned over the years that moderation and exercise is the key. A little fat and a little salt go a long way toward making food taste good and what's the point if it doesn't taste good?"

1 1/2 pounds raw shrimp

2 large tomatoes, coarsely chopped, with their juice

1/4 cup olive oil

4 cloves garlic, crushed

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon oregano

3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

1 pound lemon-pepper linguine

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. In a large baking dish, combine the shrimp, tomatoes and their juice, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, oregano and feta cheese. The mixture should make a shallow layer in the pan. Add linguine to boiling water and cook according to directions. Bake the shrimp mixture for 8 minutes; remove from oven and stir. Cook for another 3 to 5 minutes, depending on the size of the shrimp, or until the shrimp are just cooked through. Serve the shrimp mixture over the drained pasta.

Per serving: 506 calories (percent of calories from fat, 27), 32 grams protein, 61 grams carbohydrates, 3 grams fiber, 15 grams fat, 185 milligrams cholesterol, 606 milligrams sodium.

Who are the best cooks? We're looking for Georgia home cooks who deserve recognition for their talents and who have interesting recipes to share. Fax at 404-526-5509, e-mail kitchen@ajc.com or write to Betty Parham, Food Department, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 72 Marietta St. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30303. Give us your name and phone number, as well as the name and number of the cook you'd like us to consider. And tell us a little about what makes this cook special.