I'm a pastor's wife with a four year old son who loves to help in the kitchen and a six-month old daughter who is a bit of an attention-monger, making it hard for me to get any cooking done! Our church family has blessed us repeatedly by bringing us FABULOUS meals after the birth of our kids or during hard times, so I like to try and return the favor by taking meals to people who have just welcomed new babies or have been sick or in the hospital. I'm always looking for tasty new casserole, salad, and dessert recipes that travel well or can be prepared in advance and cooked later! I love to bake chocolate chip cookies the most, and also love to try new Mexican recipes and soups. For Easter and Christmas, my Grandma, Mom, Aunt, 2 cousins and I get together and make verenike (a german favorite - a noodle/dough filled with dry cottage cheese, boiled, fried, and served with white ham gravy) for the family festivities. It's fun to all be together and to try to gather all Grandma's cooking wisdom that we can. She's the master! My chocolate chip cookies are really to die for, and I'm thinking that the banana sour cream bread in the oven right now is going to work out pretty nicely! My biggest tragedies usually involve layer cake recipes and the unfailing knack I have for never NEVER being able to get them out of the pan in one piece. Never, I tell you. I also feel that it's tragic that I don't have quite the grocery budget I'd like. We'd eat like kings if only we had the money . . .