I'm a happily married career woman, full-time student and "parent" to two cats and a dog. Together my husband and I thoroughly enjoy food. Whether preparing it at home, ordering from the local diner or splurging at a gourmet restaurant, we're all about it. A meal isn't a meal unless its complete with salad to dessert. I get the greatest joy from pulling it all together even for a simple weekday meal after work. I always thought my mother was the most fabulous cook in the world--making everything from scratch--until I was an adult and she revealed almost everything she made came out of a box!!!!!! To hide her secret, mother would only allow my sister and I to make the salad every night before dinner--the result being that neither of us could boil water. One day I decided to stop using my frig as a place to hold take-out containers and start using my oven more than once a year. Some pretty interesting combinations came out of my kitchen during those early days. There was a cranberry chicken that just wasn't, and a few sauces that could pass for paste, but practice makes perfect and I just keep practicing.