Busy mom of two girls, one is a picky eater, the other one wants to be a food critic when she grows up, so she will eat just about anything. My husband is a fabulous helper in the kitchen and eats whatever I dare to try to cook. I married into an Italian family, so of course I cook plenty of Italian. But I lived in a Hispanic neighborhood of Chicago for some time, so I grew to love Mexican/Latin American cuisine. I love to bake desserts, but am still trying to learn the old family recipes. My mother was not a cook, but my grandmother was. She would bake cookies for days for her grandkids. I want to be like her when I am a grandmother. My first time ever cooking a beef tenderloin, I was terrified. It was so expensive and I was so worried that I would ruin the entire dinner. Everything I planned that night was to be exquisite, from the balsamic roasted onions, to the pumpkin custard and everything in between turned out absolutely perfect. Our guests from that evening still talk about that meal, which was about five years ago. There will always be a tragedy around here ... especially when I have my two daughters "helping" me! But that is what makes it fun and challenging. I have dropped entire dishes, I have forgotten about something on the stove, I substituted an ingredient that probably should have not been used. It is all a learning experience.