Write to Beverly and Alicia at bev-alicia@desperationdinners.com.

Beverly and Alicia spend their work hours cooking, writing, and editing cookbooks and their newspaper column, also called "Desperation Dinners," which is syndicated to more than 100 newspapers by United Feature Syndicate. They're also Desperate Moms - Beverly to her teenagers Sam and Grey; and Alicia to daughters Hannah and Rachel. The duo first met when their children were in the same preschool classes.

"We couldn't believe we had so much in common," Beverly says. "We both grew up in small North Carolina towns, we both graduated from journalism school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and we both loved food - talking about it, cooking it, writing about it and of course eating it! We even got married the same month of the same year only a week apart."

Beverly, a native of Burgaw, N.C., is married to Anders Gyllenhaal, who is a newspaper editor. She is a former editor of The Miami Herald Food Section and restaurant critic for The Miami Herald and The (Raleigh) News & Observer.

Alicia, who hails from Mint Hill, N.C., is married to Ron Ross, who is in software sales. She worked in newspaper advertising and as a preschool teacher before settling in to write about food for The News & Observer in 1993.

"Beverly is like my sister - and a lot of people think she is," Alicia explains. "In fact I look more like Beverly than her own sister does. The really scary thing is how we think so much alike. I'll start a sentence and Beverly will finish it. That's what makes this business so much fun."