I love to cook, crochet, knit, crewel, embroidery and do other crafts. I love my two cats, and oft times foster cats/kittens for adoption. While crafting, I am plugged into my favorite programs on television. I have two beautiful daughters (38 and 36 years old) and three beautiful grandchildren. My first grandchild (Tessa Kaitlyn) gave me the name "Mooma"; Lillian Grace and Lucas Michael also call me "Mooma", and I'm so proud of them I could just bust! Old fashioned meals and desserts from the 1930s and 1940s, holiday meals with lots of candies and baking, and I challeng myself with recipes from other countries. I also love to can vegetables, make relishes, and condiments (sandwich spreads, dips, dressings) and preserves. Baking yeast and quick breads is also a favorite thing to cook, and the fragrance makes the house a home. I lived with my grandparents from age 10 to 18. I watched my grandmother cook meals for potlucks and big family events, not to mention special guest dinners, canning, and making homemade sauerkraut in huge crocks. She had a one-acre garden in Savannah, Missouri; and I remember she and grandpa would "screen the spuds." She was amazing!!! No measurements...a pinch of this and a dab of that. I now copy her recipes by taste and my memory of her at the stove. She would create recipes while "getting by" with what she had in the cupboards, refrigerator, or out in the storm cellar where her root vegetables kept preserved during the winters; every meal was fit for a king. I'm just a cook, and have cooked for my family since 1969. One triumph is creating new recipes from an idea that pops in my head while sewing. I remember my farmer-cowboy husband told his friend one time that I was his trail "cookie." He said, "She can go on a round-up and cook for the guys, and take whatever food there is to make a meal out of it." That was indeed a triumph coming from him! As a young family, my husband and I did not have a lot of money left over for groceries; but again, I remembered my grandmother's strategies with sparce cupboards. In my first year of marriage, my husband brought home an elk from hunting. I cooked it in the oven with soups, onion, garlic and herbs, and that turned out pretty darn good...but the gravy? I used Pet canned milk, flour and made gravy out of the juices from the baked elk. My gravy turned a lovely olive green! The only thing I can think of is that it was from the herbs in the drippings. Bless my husband's heart....he ate it on his mashed potatoes like he never saw the color. His sister was with us at that time, and she mentioned it. I told them they didn't have to eat it, and he said, "It's real good!" He was good to me, but I was so embarrassed! Later on in life, he would tell the story about me serving him and his sister green gravy.