I'm a newlywed yankee who was brought up southern. Want to tell me I'm not a belle? Try my chicken fried steak! I've been cooking ever since I could read green eggs and ham and wanted to try it for myself. I'm of the opinion that to be a good cook, you have to like it. You're never going to learn a new language if you don't like the way it sounds. I love baking and cheesecakes are my specialty. Fudge and caramels are a lot of fun too. Generally speaking, if I have more than two hours of free time, I'm going to bake something. Learning the old recipes from my great grandmother from my mom. Fried chicken, and the base for potato salad and cole slaw are still things I have to master. It's not the 4th of july without mom's outstanding salads. Holidays at my sister's. My sister has the most ill equipped kitchen so making anything that doesn't require the microwave is a challenge. It's like: here's an egg slicer and coffee cup - make a cake! Managing to pull of a masterpiece out of the comfort of my own kitchen is a triumph! I was really bad at gravy. It was always lumpy and bland or thin and too salty. One day it just clicked, now I can make cream gravy and brown gravy with the best of them!