I have been cooking since I was 12 years old. I learned out to make the perfect pie crust by watching my mom. She also had the most wonderful chocolate chip cookie recipe that she made regularly for the grandchildren. I love to try new recipes as often as I can. I like to cook soups quite often during the winter season, and use fresh herbs from my herb garden in the summertime. I also enjoy baking cookies, pies, cakes, brownies, and desserts, in general. I usually follow an Italian theme for Easter, to include lasagna, fettucine alfredo, chicken piccata, garlic bread, green salad, and cannoli cake for dessert. This is a favorite of my children. At Christmas, I bake lots of different kinds of cookies and I always make Chex Mix using a recipe my sister gave me years ago. I made a from scratch recipe for butterhorns, and they turned out very good and the family loved them! When I was in my early 20's, I had my mom and dad over for dinner and made a poppyseed torte for dessert. I couldn't understand why the torte didn't "rise". After talking to my mom, she said it was because I didn't beat my egg whites until they were stiff. I just beat them a bit! We all had a good laugh over it.