I am a mother of 3 (1) boy & (2) girls, wife for almost 20 years. I grew up watching my great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother cook our family recipes. I never refused to eat whatever we were cooking! I loved eating dinner with my family outdoors at our patio table. Eating my great-grandmothers fresh off the vine tomatoes with a little salt and pepper "loved it"! Great Summer Dinners eating outdoors with the Delta breezes and my family! Where I live today you wouldn't dare eat dinner outdoors at a 115 degrees! Slow cooked Meats and veggies! BBQ redmeat (various types) BBQ roasted veggies, and coming up with new recipes & cooking techniques Cleaning out Holloween Pumpkins with my kids, Black eyed peas with hamhock and hot water corn bread on New Years Day! Thanksgiving morning preparing for the FEAST! and listening to the Macy's Day parade on the TV Tamales I always thought it would be really hard to make. Watching my step-mother's family make them during the holidays, it took everyone help! Though I live far away from them I still craved them, and one day thought I could master this on my own? So I did! Now I think about so many variations to the recipe! Some of my early married years trying my own new recipes. Boy my husband really loves me! He would say things like "Honey, I will eat this tonight, but don't ever make this again"! He still ate whatever I put on his plate without complaint!