I have always loved to cook and remember when taking Home Ec. class I would come home all excited and my Mom would let me cook a special dinner. Then I married, we lived on spaghetti for many dinners,lol...I then came into my own while living on a small farm in Toutle Lake..I tried anything I could, raising chickens for eggs and trading them for fresh milk, as my girlfriend had a dairy farm..Baking bread was my favorite thing to do as well as wonderful family Bar-B-Ques..I do find a chanllenge in my life now, as I find myself a widow and on another path in life..In the meantime, lunch with friends and BBQ's with neighbors keep my cooking skills sharpened and keep my creativity in focus.. I enjoy cooking whatever comes to mind that day, with a special love of salads and chicken..also have made a vegetarian friend and am having fun finding recipes to share.. It has always been a tradition to have the family members birthday be their special day to set the menu, and for dessert have their birthday cake carried in lit with candles. The latest cooking triumph was the pasta salad I took to a friends when first meeting her husband. I came home with an empty bowl and was very pleased. I do think my most excited triumph was at Christmas, about 4years ago, I made a Coconut custard pie, for the first time, and sent it with my friends girls to their Mother's family get together. They came back with requests for the recipe which I gladly gave them. However, about 2 years later, at a graduation party for one of the girls, their step-father came up to me and said, "aren't you the lady that made the fantastic Coconut Custard Pie?"..what a glow that gave me.. The first time I made gravy, after cooling, it was so thick you could turn the bowl upside down and the gravy did not move..what a riot to remember that..