Christine Vartanian Datian, a Fresno native, is an advertising copywriter and technical writer who has been published in Sunset Magazine, Cooking Light Magazine, The Las Vegas Review-Journal, The Fresno Bee, and The New York Times for over a decade. She is a graduate of California State University, Fresno (CSUF) with a Master of Arts Degree in Mass Communications (News Editorial Journalism). She worked in corporate advertising for companies and agencies including at Harrah’s Corporate Advertising Department in Reno, Lake Tahoe, and Atlantic City, and at R&R Advertising in Las Vegas. She attributes her accomplishments and interests in writing and creating new recipes to her beloved mother Alice (a native of Lowell, MA), and her late grandmother, Mrs. Peppy Sarkisian, a native of Adana, Turkey, and a survivor of the Armenian Genocide. Christine’s mother, Alice recently celebrated her 97th birthday, and was known for her superb yalanche, dolma, moussaka, fassoulia, rice and bulgur pilaf, cheese boureg, specialty cookies, nut breads, gata, biscotti, and desserts, including her celebrated Armenian “shakarishe” or “butter cookies” that she lovingly made for family events and celebrations for over 50 years.