I'm 46 years old and I've been married for 27 years. We have three great children, although they're not babies anymore, as our youngest is 20! We also gained a son-in-law and a grandson in the past 2 years! :) Even though I am currently unemployed, cooking on weeknights is rarely planned. I guess I thrive of cooking on the fly ... LOL! I love making casseroles, which is good, because my family gobbles them up. I like putting some kind of spicy twist on casseroles, especially Mexican-inspired flavors. I also tend to use a lot of cheeses in my dishes. I learned a lot from my mom, who cooked for my large family. Her cooking early on was inspired by her mother, who was of German descent. Lots of meat and potato-type dishes. I try to carry on some of these dishes, but don't make them often, as they're not exactly low carb or low fat. I have a few recipes that have been passed on to me by friends and former co-workers that I'm always asked to bring to family dinners and pitch-ins. I'm very proud of that, as I feel these recipes are now my "specialties." For Thanksgiving 2003, I wanted to make a loaf of bread to take to the in-laws for dinner. I had just lost my beloved mom a few months earlier, and I wanted to make this day special because it was the first Thanksgiving without her. Needless to say, something went wrong, and the bread was flat and heavy when it came out of the breadmaker. I cried because there was no time to make another loaf.