I am definitely not a domestic goddess. The one and only "Becky Homeckie" thing I enjoy doing is cooking. My cooking style has changed over the years based on what my life is filled with at any given moment. When I was a stay at home mom, I loved creating new and exciting meals to reward my husband for his long work hours and to get my kids interested in eating a wide variety of foods. I recently went back to college and am now a teacher. My time to cook has shrunk to nearly nothing. That means I've recently fallen in love with pressure cooker recipes, crockpot recipes, and anything ala Rachael Ray that takes less than 30 minutes to cook. I love family events where I can search for new things to make and spend all day making something interesting and delicious for my family and guests. I have to start with what I hate to cook--anything bakery style! My mother-in-law and two daughter (14 and 10 years old) love to bake, but I cannot stand the exact measurements, in-and-out-of-the-oven routine, or the giant mess afterwards. This hatred of baking does not extend to cheesecake, however. I found a book years ago that has never let me down. The cheesecakes are amazing and relatively easy to make. Another type of food I love to make is appetizers. I love multiple options when I eat, and appetizers are the perfect way to find a ton of options, and not have to be held down to just one option for eating. When I was little, we had no family traditions;Christmas, birthdays, etc. were hit-or-miss. When I married my husband, though, I married into a family who loves to get together. We now have monthly Family Dinners that travel from one member's to another's house. Each family has an assigned dish to bring depending on whose house the meal is being served at. We now have this funny ritual of calling each other before every big family meal trying to remember who brings what to Karen's house or Colleen's house. That gives us all one more excuse to call each other, laugh as we try to decipher our foolproof schedule, and plan out what we are going to bring once we remember it's veggies at Karen's and dessert at Colleen's (for me anyway!) It may sound cliche, but I truly put my heart into my cooking. It's almost like a gift I can give my family and guests. My triumphs all seem to involve the looks on my kids' faces when I've hit the mark with a recipe. A secret triumph of mine is the look of delight my wonderful father-in-law gets on his face when something delicious hits his stomach. Mother-in-law (who I also love dearly) hates to cook and does not put any soul into her dishes, so when FIL comes over he starts drooling before he gets his jacket off and doesn't quit smiling until his last cup of coffee and slice of cheesecake are polished off. My husband nearly died from my cooking for the first few years we were married! He still doubles over with phantom gut pains from some of my earliest attempts: spaghetti sauce the dog (who ate garbage) wouldn't eat, meat roll (imagine undercooked hamburger and gummy Bisquick rolled together and you'll get the idea,) and something called "Cashew Chicken" that looked more like roadkill and tasted 10 times worse! He was a real trooper and stuck with me, now his gastronomic needs are much more satisifed!