I love to cook, its my relaxation. I enjoy trying new dishes and putting my spin on them. My extended family loves to call and ask me for recipes. I am affectionately known at work and any gathering as the "cake lady" Plain ol southern fare would be my favorite to cook.. cornbread hot out of the oven smothered with butter, steaming biscuits with homemade jelly, country fried steak with gravy... they all bring back memories of my childhood and so therefore are very enjoyable and always put a smile on my face. My favorite tradition is baking my children's birthday cakes every year... no matter how "grown up" they want to be sometimes, they always want mama to make their cake and that means the world to me. My great grandmother was an amazing cook and passed away when I was too young to ask her how to make her fried corn... a delicious corn dish that is made in a cast iron skillet. I have finally played around enough with it that I think I have finally made a pretty close reproduction.. to me, that is a huge triumph as a tribute to her memory. there were many trial and errors along the way as I was growing up and learning to cook on my own.. some "throw together dishes" didn't come out quite so well and there were a few recipes I tried out of cookbooks that weren't quite what I had imagined but they all make me who I am so I don't really call them tragedies