I live in Wisconsin with my husband and two daughters, Emma (5/24/02) and Cami (2/17/05). I love to bake and cook but in the past few years I haven't had much time to bake. Now that my girls are older they are eager to help and I'm getting back into it. I'm really enjoying finding new recipes to try. My favorite meals are Mexican and Italian. I am not much of a red meat eater, so I like to try things with chicken. As far as my baking favorites, I like cookies, cake and bread. My family has an apple orchard (2nd and 3rd generation). So when apple season comes, I love trying new apple recipes I find on here. Also Christmas cookies are a big family tradition. I can remember watching my great-grandmother bake cookies. We weren't allowed to help just watch and sample. My mother is a good baker, she's the one that taught me. Now I teach her things. :) I like to mix recipes around by exchanging one ingredient for an other. It works most of the time. I also like to try to "lighten up" recipes. But I love making yeast breads. I know it's usually a challenge for most people (including my father) but I guess I've been doing it for so long it doesn't bother me. Not reading recipes all the way through before starting. I do this so often that I have gotten pretty good at fixing my mistakes. It kind of goes back to my triumphs (above).