As a child I would cook a lot with my mom and my grandmother and I enjoyed it. However, I never took the time to master the art of cooking certain dishes from scratch such as a pound cake or chicken and dumplings. I would just go to mom's for those special "from scratch" dishes. I always stayed too busy with work and raising my son. Now that I have more time on my hands, I am really trying to cook more often and I look for new recipes everywhere I go. My goal is to create a cook book of me and my family's favorite tried and proved recipes to be passed down to the next generation. It brings me greater joy to see others enjoy my cooking... "The Fruits of My Labor." Don't really have a favorite... I prefer quick uncomplicated recipes that looks and tastes as if you have spent a lot of time and effort. As a child I really enjoyed my grandma coming to visit for the summer and our many mid-night cooking adventures. I will always cheerish the stories she would tell as she made her famous pineapple cake, smoothered chicken and gravy or her apple or peach dumplings. I will never forget the buttery and sweet smell that would fill the air and the mess we would make with the flour. I once told her that everything she cooked tasted good. My grandmother would just smile and say that is because there's a lot of love added to her recipes. I would love to pass the tradition of always having plenty of family or friends in the kitchen while adding to every recipe a lot of hearftfelt love and conversation. My son loves cheesy mac and cheese. So I came up with a recipe especially for him and it has been a hit with the family and requested at other dinner functions that we are invited to. There usually is never any leftover. It took several attempts for me to master cooking fried chicken so that it was not just golden brown on the outside but fully cooked to the bone on the inside. My first attempt at making a pound cake in college was the biggest disaster. It didn't rise and it tasted like halfway sweet with no flavor flour bread.