I am a very proud stay at home mom. My husband and my children are the center of my world, and I love it. I love love love to cook. It really is the only hobby that I have ever had. I can still remember the very moment that I realized that I loved to cook. I was 10 years old and had just made chocolate chip cookies all by myself, it was so gratifying for me. I loved all the "oohhs" and "ahhhs" over something that I had created. I consider myself to be a traditional cook. I love cooking comfort foods. When I entertain, I spend days planning the menu, the hunt for the perfect recipe is a huge part of my passion. My Grandparents are from the South and they spend lots of time in the kitchen together. My Grandpa is the Chef and my Grandma is his Sous Chef. I love that they make such a great team. They cook a lot of fried and Mexican food. Chili Verde is my Grandpa's specialty. My Aunt also inspired my passion for cooking. As a teenager I would go to her house and watch cooking shows on PBS with her and we would drool over the food, then go into the kitchen and recreate it. I have hosted many bridal and baby shower's with my own menus. One Christmas my best friend and I sold 120 dozen cookies on cookies trays. Until I had children, I ran my own personal chef business for several families. So far this summer (7/29/2007) my best friend and I have canned/presserved 130 jars of jams, pickles, pickled green beans, relish, & oven dried tomatoes- and that's with 3 young children in the house. I made what was supposed to be- an awesome apple cake. It was going to be so good. When I served it, someone said "Oh God this cake tastes like onions." Everyone started agreeing with her and putting their plates down. I had stored the green apples to close to the onions! It was terrible, but a very good lesson. I also had the same thing happen with some spaghetti sauce, I put my homemade sauce in ziplock freezer bags and when I heated it up for dinner, the sauce tasted like soap! I had the box of freezer bags in the laundry room cupboard next to a box of laundry detergent! Yet another lesson in osmosis!