I am a soon-to-be-divorced mom of one teenaged daughter. For 20 years, I was married to the pickiest eater on the planet, and my culinary skills were stifled! I couldn't make anything with vegetables other than corn. Everything had to have canned gravy poured over it. Homemade macaroni and cheese was frowned upon, it had to come out of a box. Well, my kitchen has now become my playground, as I can make anything I want! I grew up in an Italian neighborhood, so Italian food is my specialty. I learned from the best! I enjoy experimenting with fresh herbs, and have a huge herb garden in my back yard. I try to avoid anything out of a can or a box, I like to make things from scratch whenever possible. I also love to bake, especially Christmas cookies. We have none! I grew up mainly on meatloaf, swiss steak, and pot roast. This is why I learned to cook, because I knew there was SO much more out there. Although I will have to say that my Mom taught me how to bake, that was something she was quite good at. Christmas! My whole family gets together at my house every Christmas Eve, and I make a ton of appetizers, dips, and finger foods. Everything looks so festive, and it tastes good, too! I also make about 35 different kinds of Christmas cookies and candies. Well, the worst was when I was making a huge batch of homeade spaghetti sauce. It had been cooking for several hours, and it was almost done. I decided to toss a few more spices in the pot, but instead of grabbing basil, I grabbed a big economy-sized container of cinnamon. Still not realizing what I had in my hand, I started to shake a little into the sauce, but there was no shaker cover on the container. So, I ended up dumping about a cup of cinnamon into my spaghetti sauce. Yuck! Needless to say, it all went into the garbage!