I have been married to my 'soul-mate' and love of my life for over 25 years. I work full-time in real estate but cooking and food are my passion and my creative outlet. My husband and I are empty nesters and learning to cook for two has been a challenge for me. I am active in my church, where I lead a small women's Bible study group. Life is good! Anything And Everything For Brunch. Baking, Especially Cookies. Big Sunday Dinners For My Family. I single-handedly prepared and served my sister-in-laws rehearsal dinner. I had never cooked for a big crowd (other than family) and I was scared. We had a wonderful menu that included Hawaiin chicken, steak kabobs and pork loin. I served a New York style cheesecake for dessert along with some petit fours and ended the night arguing with one of the guests who swore that there was NO WAY everything was homemade and not from a professional restaurant or caterer. What started out as a favor to my sis-n-law, turned into a passion and desire for the culinary arts. When my kids were young I was always searching for variety and a break from the ordinary. At one meal I prepared a "Caribbean Sweet Potato" recipe. It was definitely different from anything my family had been exposed to at the time. It was a miserable failure. I ate it (more like choked it down) to prove to everyone that it really wasn't THAT bad. Fifteen years later my kids still will remind me of "those disgusting awful caribbean sweet potatoes". Isn't it funny how vividly they remember the failures???