I'm from Louisiana and I grew up watching my mom and grandmother cook gumbos, jambalaya, and all that other good Louisiana cuisine. I'm very proud to have learned how to make my great-grandmother's jambalaya and cornbread dressing, which are never written down, just passed on from one family member to another. Overall, I'm only an okay cook, as I much prefer to bake. I'm not married, nor do I have kids, so I'm always bringing goodies to the office. I love browsing this site looking for new ideas. Baking is my therapy. I love to make cøokies and candies. As for everyday cooking, I prefer making soups or healthful vegetable dishes. The butternut squash bisque and Grandma's chicken noodle soup recipes from this site are my favorites. Every year at Christmas my sister makes chicken and dumplings. She makes them so well, they are even better than my grandmother's were. I'm always expected to make a dessert. I make the BEST oatmeal cookies (in my opinion anyway). After many years testing different recipes, I could never find one that was "quite right." So, I made up my own! They are always the first items swiped at parties. I once tried to make gingerbread for Christmas. Although it smelled awesome in the oven, it came out dry, dense, and crumbly. That was the last time I'll make something for family without testing it first. There was also the tempura incident. Let's just say that now when I have a craving for tempura, I get in the car and drive to the nearest Japanese restaurant.