I am a small town girl who works in the big city, so I like quick supper recipes since nearly 2 hours of my day are spent commuting. I have two boys, the oldest is very interested in cooking. He is ten and is already a much better cook than I was at that age. My wonderful husband helps out quite a bit in the kitchen. I grow some vegetables and try to put up as much as I can canning and freezing, but it is hard being a homemaker and a working mom. I work with mostly "city folk" who get a kick out of my farm stories, (we also have a farm) and are amazed that I cook "real" food nearly every meal. I don't know what they eat- restaurant food or frozen meals, but I think it is sad that so many people don't have cooking traditions or teach their children how to provide for themselves, whether living in the city or the country. Cooking from scratch (like hummus, fresh bread, pasta, marinara sauce)- knowing what is in it is important to me. I love to cook anything Mexican, chile rellenos and salsa verde are my favorites to make. Monkey bread, chocolate chip cookies, lasagna, biscuits and gravy, anything grilled. Suppers in the slow cooker- there's a lovely feeling knowing supper will be ready and waiting when you get home from work! Looking over this list, most things are very fattening. I usually cook lightly with a couple of rich meals thrown in each week so I guess I enjoy cooking the fattening stuff more! Maybe because my family gets more excited about lasagna than salad. Christmas wouldn't be complete without a country ham and a blackberry jam cake. Sunday mornings are our big breakfast days, the one day a week when me and my husband are both home and can cook together due to our different work shifts. I am still trying to perfect my biscuit recipe to taste like my grandma's used to. Long ago I made a caramel pie that was astounding. I lost the recipe and can't find another like it. My best triumph would have to be the perfect pork chops I cooked for my future husband. I haven't cooked pork chops like those since, and he says I just lured him in with that meal! I used a marinade mix that has since been discontinued, so it looks like he's out of luck! The first time I made gravy it was like paste. I was only 12 at the time and my friend was staying over and wanted fried chicken and gravy. The chicken was a bit bloody and the gravy was paste. She ate the outside of the chicken that was done and the gravy and said it was great. I don't if her mom was a horrible cook so it made mine look good or she was being nice, but God bless her for the compliment. I once put 2 tablespoons of garlic powder in a batch of broccoli soup instead of 2 teaspoons.