Well, I'm a Boise transplant originally from California. I think there is still a lot of California girl in me but, I do love Idaho. I am the mother of 2 and grandmother of 3. I home school my grandson which is always a challenge and way too fun. I think life is taken too seriously. Sure, there are serious things in life but, you still need to laugh. I also wish the world could just be one big "Brady Bunch". I am a hopeless optimist and figure things could be worse. And, I think everyday has the ability to be a good day. If you woke up alive and everyone you care about woke up alive then, it's a good day. Geeze, even a broken clock is right twice. I enjoy cooking challenging things. Not the every day stuff that you can do blindfolded. And I love to make my dishes look good. I'm not sure I have favorites. During the winter I like to make what I call one pan dinners. Stews, soups and things in large bubbly pans. My family doesn't have any long standing traditions but my husbands family does and I have, with the help of my sainted mother-in-law and sweetheart husband, learned to cook some of them. When his family gets together for the holidays, I love to help my sisters-in-law make the dinner. They are all German Mennonite and I love their traditions. They make dished for the holidays that they made before they came to America. That's cool. Having my mother-in-law ask me to bring a family favorite to a large family Christmas gathering when everyone else was raised in a German Mennonite commuinty and grew up with the food and I didn't. Somehow, I always seem to set fire to something during the holidays. It's usually the sweet potatoes either before they go into the oven or the marshmellows when I am going to toast them.