Raised on a mid-west farm in southern Indiana, while my mom helped in the fields I would prepare the meals. I was 10 when I cooked easy meals such as spaghetti. Now I am 53, mother of 4, grandmother of soon-to-be 10 living in a small mid-west town in southern Illinois. I work part-time and on my days off I LOVE cooking all day! I love baking too, but cooking is my favorite. I cook breakfast ever day, except Sunday and try to have a hot evening meal on the table by 6:30 or 7, even on the days I work. I have 2 adult girls that recently left home, ages 20 and 25. I am kind of experiencing the EMPTY nest syndrome. The 20 year old left for Eastern Illions University to continue college and the 25 year old found a nice apartment,and is still an RN at a hospital in a nearby city. So now I am trying to learn how to cook for only two instead of 6 (we have a lot of left overs) I also love animals. We have 3 cats and 3 dogs, all inside. They keep me busy... I love creating new salads and soups. Muffins, breakfast casseroles and biscuits and gravy are family favorites. When my kids come home or friends gather at our place, we always end up in the kitchen around food. So finger foods are a must. I love taking a recipe and turning it into low-fat or higher fiber. (I am a big believer in Whole Wheat and brown rice.) I guess the traditional, I have Thanksgiving at our home every other year (alternating with my brother) and Christmas Eve every 4th year (alternating with my husbands brothers and sister). A new tradition of ours began last year with our youngest daughter's high school graduation party. We had a cook-out on the Saturday night of memorial weekend. This year we did it again because she graduated from our junior college in just a year and our 24 year old graduated with her nursing degree (her second career choice). So we have decided to have a party next year same day just instead of a graduation party, a "we don't own a boat" party. We had grilled meats and veggies, and of course lots of homemade salads. I'm really pretty good at anything that I plan and take time with. I am not a very good, "hurry-up" cook. Most things that I try to do in my "automatic" crock pot usually ends up too dry or burned. The only thing I can do in it, is soup. I just don't know what I am doing wrong or if the crock pot is defective. Also, I am probably the only cook to have ever burned rice, it was totally BLACK.