I'm a stay-at-home-mom with three young sons. We are a busy family, involved in all kinds of events for school, scouts and sports. My husband and I both run businesses out of our home. I prefer to bake rather than assemble a real meal, but I can't serve my family only cakes and cookies! We prefer traditional, down-home kind of meals: roasts & stews, big pasta dishes like stuffed shells and lasagne, baked ham, roast chicken, meat loaf, etc. I am always looking for a new recipe to revamp an old favorite, but we are not big into exotic, ethnic or experimental dishes. A few days before Christmas, we go on a cooking & baking marathon. I don't like to cook on Christmas itself (prefer to relax) so we make up dozens & dozens of cookies, side dishes, throw a ham in the crock pot, make a roast and bake a chicken, etc. It's become a tradition and even the boys get involved. Some years ago, my idea of cooking was to throw a TV dinner in the microwave. A husband and three kids later and that was no longer feasible. So *any* cooking is a triumph for me! I sat down and taught myself, scoured hundreds of books and websites, and now as long as I have a recipe, I can make it! From my very early days: Do not add 'just a little bit' of milk to sticky melting chocolate in a sauce pan to make it melt faster/ become creamier.