I am a business and marketing writer, and I own my own company managing writers, editors, and graphic designers. My husband owns his own company as well, so we work at home together and set our own schedules. We live a charmed life! Fried chicken (I make the best fried chicken in the world, if I do say so myself!); Lasagna; Homemade soups (vegetable, chicken and rice, potato, split pea); Carrot cake, German chocolate cake, and Lizzie cake (I posted the recipe here), all from scratch; old-fashioned baked macaroni and cheese; meat loaf; potato salad; grilled pork and beef ribs. The cooks in my family are adventurous. We like trying new things, new recipes, and making up our own creations. I come from a long line of people who love food, and I married an Italian with the same background. We have our own approaches and our own techniques, but we are not afraid to try something new. Also, I rarely use a mix for anything unless I'm in a big hurry; I prefer making things from scratch. And I love using my hands to make things--getting my hands in the bowl to mix up a meatloaf is therapeutic! I have finally been having steady success baking my own bread from scratch. I've had years of hit-or-miss episodes and almost gave up, but after researching and reading in depth about flours, gluten, temperature, kneading, and bread-making techniques, I learned a lot about keeping things simple and not being overconfident. I've been able to make Italian bread, French bread, and sourdough bread. My next challenge is going to be rye. Making tiny individual 2-layer carrot cakes from scratch for my brother's wedding reception. (Two jelly-roll pan layers, frost the tops of each, put one atop the other, then cut the cakes out with a biscuit cutter.) I'd made them many times before and was very confident--but the kitchen was crowded and busy. When I went to slide the second layer on top of the first, someone hit my elbow and the layer slid right off onto the floor--frosting side down! Thank goodness I was making a double recipe anyway, so it wasn't a total disaster; I took the fourth cake layer and cut it in half. We just didn't have as many cakes as I had planned. But nobody noticed because it was such a happy day.