I am a homeschooling mom of 5 so I stay pretty busy! Cheese cake. It's my husband's favorite and my first big cooking accomplishment. I also like experimenting with new types of recipies. I figure if I have to cook anyway (which I do "have to" do) then I might as well broaden my horizons. Although, I have a fondenss for appetizers. My mom always made pecan rolls for Christmas morning. It was the only time she would make them every year, so we would look forward to that. Now I make them for my kids. It is a neat tradition to be passing on. Tackling a cheese cake is at the top of my list. I made several at various degrees of "doneness" before I figured out how to tell if a cheese cake is done or not. Once I got that right, it took a while longer before I learned how to get it to not crack down the middle. I had just about resigned myseld to always have to cover the top of my cheese cakes with roses from the garden! It made it pretty, but I really wanted that nice flat top. I felt fairly confident venturing out in the cooking world after concurring that! Well, seeing as I am limited to what I can write, I'll mention just one. I was using my grandmother's chicken pot pie recipe (it's actually NOT chicken pot pie, more like chicken and noodles in gravy). At any rate, I made the egg noodles just as the recipe said to and I rolled them out to right thickness. As I added them to the chicken and broth, they began to expand, and expand, and expand....and well, you get the idea. I didn't even get half the noodles in the pot before they blew up and boiled over (I do not know if that is the right terminology, but I am not sure if there is an actual way of saying crazy noodles that blow up and make a big mess)! It was awful. My husband has begged me to never make it again.