I work full-time (and then some!) at the cafe my family owns. I have two wonderful kids and I love to cook with my children. My son is really into helping in the kitchen - and my daughter has been cooking since she was eight! My love of cooking came from my dear Gramma Papp. She taught me to cook, can, bake, crochet, garden, and love life! I have recently started eating gluten free for health reasons. In the first day the difference was amazing! I think that a gluten free diet opens you up to a world of nutritious alternatives that you would otherwise miss out on. A gluten free diet is not living without something - it is living with so much more! I just LOVE desserts! I adore cake decorating and am quite good at it. I enjoy the old fashioned recipes, the ones people don't use any more for "lack of time". I love to cook from scratch and have recently been exploring my heritage and experimenting with many Pennysylvania Dutch recipes. My forte remains desserts and decorating cakes though! I always make a big deal out of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. For New Years we have a "nibble tray buffet" that my kids look forward to every year. When times are hard, they will gladly skimp on Thanksgiving and Christmas to get the nibble tray buffet on New Years! Holidays are my favorite time of the year! We really do up Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New years. The whole family gets into the planning and preparation of food and snacks every year. I just love it when I throw something together from things on hand and come up with a new family favorite! I donated a three layered chocolate fudge wedding cake topped with fresh glazed strawberries and delicate choclate lace pieces to a dear friend for her wedding. It was wonderful - and one of the most technically challenging cakes I have made to date! When I was a child I put one cup instead of one teaspoon of salt into a cookie recipe. I was so embarrased I threw it over the back fence into the field. The next day all the weeds had died under it!