I am a Mexican American woman (I was blessed with the best of both worlds, lol) I love to cook, always have. Growing up in a traditional Mexican home I was thought to cook at a young age and from scratch none the less! It was rare to use anything canned in our house, but I love the idea of Semi-Home cooked meals. A wonderful and practical idea this time in age. It’s a fact that most people can not dedicate half a day just cooking dinner, although I sometimes wish we could. Being married to a man who can't stay away from sweets I have dedicated sooooooooooo much time to baking. I try to bake at least one time a week. I think my favorite tradition is the days prior to a special family event/holiday. All the women young and old are seen in the kitchen (usually Grandma’s house) everyone doing their own things but everyone together usually “chismeano”, gossiping. Then of course there is the ending product GREAT HOME COOKING, usually including the famous TAMALES, my mom's famous RICE, I have an aunt who has perfected the BBQ ribs, and a cousin who has mastered different types of lasagna. When I was a teenager I wanted to make a cake for a friend’s birthday. In my mind I wanted to make a gorgeous 3 story strawberry cake with a white creamy cheese frosting I got all my ingredients ready and as far as I could tell everything was set and ready but when it came out of the oven the cake was completely flat, cooked but flat. I wanted a fluffy 3 story cake. I was short on time and the cake was being expected for dinner, there was no time to start again. I am not sure what gave me the idea, the cake was moist so I broke it into little pieces and flattened it out, I flipped it out of the baking dish and it was perfectly molded. I added the frosting. It was pretty, small but acceptable I thought. Everyone loved it, I was asked for the recipe, a few months later I revealed the secret. The cake is called “By Gods Grace “ lol still a family favorite. lol One day my neat freak sister decided she wanted to organize my mother’s kitchen. It looked wonderful; everything was in labeled matching containers. The following week I came home with a case of fresh strawberries, I decided to make a fresh strawberry pie. Everything was set and ready it just needed the glaze. I placed the ingredients,(Jell-O, water and cornstarch) in a pot was waiting for it to thickened, but nothing. I though maybe it needs more cornstarch, so I added more but still nothing. I thought maybe it just needs to cool off a little, my mom suggested to put the glaze on the pie and refrigerate it. After dinner we presented the desert: it looked terrible, not only was it runny but the liquid was absorbed by the pie shell so it became mushy. It was soooooooooooo SWEET I couldn’t eat it. Turns out my sister mislabeled the container it was actually confectioner sugar not cornstarch. To make matters worst it was the BAKING SPLENDA, which is a lot sweeter.