Cooking has always been a large part of my life, as long as I can remember. I started as a small child making cookies with my mother and even today we often spend time together making dinners for large family gatherings. While I love to entertain and spend time making new dishes to try out on my extended family. I think the most fun in the kitchen comes from the time I spend with my almost three year old daughter. Already we are working on those cookies together. I love to try new recipes often making new dishes several times a week. I can't think of anything more boring than having to eat the same dinners every night. That isn't to say we don't have those few family favorites that show up on the table weekly. Because I have a back ground from the Mississippi Gulf Coast I tend to have a large Cajun and traditional Southern influence in the meals I cook. As I said before I can remember making cookies with my mother from an early age and it is a tradition I very much look forward to sharing with my daughter. Often times my mother would send trays of holiday cookies and home made candies to work with my father. A career soldier, it was often the only chance many of these young men had for these treats. Several years ago I decided to learn to make bread, without the bread machine. I found that not only do I enjoy it, I am actually pretty good at it. It was an activity I stopped when I was pregnant with my daughter. I have recently taken it up again more than three years later and happy to say that I haven't lost my touch. My greatest cooking tragedy would have to be the one and only time I tried to make ravioli. I have begged for a pasta maker for months and was so excited to try it out. I however was a little too ambiscious and instead of starting with an easy item like noodles, I went for the whole hog. I was going to make ravioli. It was so bad, the dough was gummy, they fell apart, had no flavor. Three years later, the pasta maker still sits in the box where it was placed once I finished crying.