I was raised by a single, working mom who still somehow managed to make a lot of things from scratch. Now, as a stay at home mom, I'm obsessed with cooking from scratch whenever I can. I'm not too hot with regular meals, but I love baking bread and treats. I prefer cold weather cooking to warm weather cooking, and I love making soup of all kinds. My grandma didn't really enjoy cooking but she made really good fried chicken, chili (once a year on Halloween), and roasts, so I've learned to make those things. I like to think that my kids are eating the same things I grew up eating! My husband's family doesn't have traditional holiday meals, but have lasagne on Christmas Eve and chicken soup with rice on New Years, so I've learned to make those things, too, and now our kids will grow up with those same traditions that my husband did. My first Thanksgiving! I made everything - we didn't eat until about 8, and the turkey was a little dry, but it was my first time doing it on my own - just me and my husband! I was pregnant with our first child, and I had spent all day making a pumpkin cheesecake from scratch (and I mean, *scratch*, fron an actual pumpkin) for my sister's birthday. I pulled that beauty out of the oven and the bottom fell out of the spring-form pan and the cheesecake fell out, hit the oven door and splattered EVERYWHERE! I sat right down and cried - when my family got there they found me on the kitchen floor sobbing and eating cheesecake off the oven door.