I love entertaining at my beach house and making food for others to enjoy. I would definitely say that the kitchen is where I feel the most comfortable and relaxed. However, it wasn't always that way. For the past 11 years I have worked hard to improve my skills and gain greater confidence in the kitchen. Now I can't wait to try new recipes and experiment with new flavors and techniques. Simple recipes that can easily be memorized are my favorite. Recipes that require only a handful of ingredients are the ones that I tend to make over and over again. I bake a lot of rich sweets and treats for dessert but stick to light and simple dinners. In December we make snowman cookies for Santa and we work in an assembly line. The kids love to help decorate them. Traditionally, during the months of October and November, I make an obscene amount of pumpkin pies, pumpkin cheesecake, and pumpkin bread. As a birthday tradition, my husband and children also get to request any kind of cake, no matter how difficult it is to make. For a couple years I struggled with cooking. I thought I was terrible in the kitchen. Everything I cooked seemed to come out too burnt or too cooked on the outside and not done on the inside. My mom suggested I buy an oven thermometer; I hadn't even thought of that. Low and behold, everything I cooked after that was wonderful. While 9 months pregnant, I mistakenly thought I could leave the house for a bit while I had corned beef cooking on the stove. Well, it ran out of water and burnt to a crisp. The house was filled with smoke and smelled for weeks. It was a huge mess. Everything was covered with a greasy layer of smoke residue and had to be washed from the ceiling to the floor. My husband and I had to work around the clock to get the house clean and aired out before the new baby arrived- it was definitely a cooking tragedy.