Hi! I'm 18 years old and the second oldest of nine children. I'm homeschooled, and am looking forward to graduating so that I can take over more of the cooking responsiblities or maybe even go to a culinary arts school. I enjoy trying new recipes and tweaking them to suit my tastes. With such a large family, it's hard to find recipes for meals that all of us will like! I love cooking, but baking is definitely my forte. Anything rich or chocolaty is what I like to make! I enjoy creating new dessert recipes, especially brownies. Several of my creations have won prizes at the Wisconsin state fair; I guess it helps that I have so many willing taste-testers! Every Christmas, my family and I make stollen from a recipe my Mom has adapted over a period of several years. I also make lots of Christmas cookies and candy; I love trying out new recipes, and have already found some promising ones on this site! I guess my greatest cooking triumph was this year, when I won five blue ribbons and six big awards on one day at the Wisconsin State Fair! It was very exciting! Another triumph was when I won second place in the Hershey's brownie contest at the state fair several years ago; there were about 20 entries, and it was the first time I'd ever entered anything! I think that is what really got me hooked:) I've had my fair share of tragedies! I can create my own recipes for multi-layered desserts from scratch, but I can't seem to make a box cake! I had to make two cakes in three weeks; the first one I didn't add the correct amount of water, and it turned out very hard. The second was even worse; I switched the oil and water measurements! Let's just say that deep-fried cake did not become a new favorite at my house! And then there was the time I forgot to put sauce on the pizza. However, it was good enough that no one could figure out what was wrong with it until they were on their second slices!