Food is my passion/obsession! My world twirls around it. I come from a long line of good cooks and with the exception of baking, I learned to cook without recipes. I can't thank my mother enough for that because I can replicate almost anything just by taste. One thing that my mother taught me was that you can never know enough and there are always secrets to be uncovered. My collection of cookbooks and magazines are endless and drive my husband absolutely nuts. Now about baking. I can't bake to save my life! Not brownies from a box or bread from a bread machine. I have about a dozen or so tried 'n true recipes that I use to fool the critics. I enjoy cooking ethnic foods like Czech/Bavarian, Mexican, Cajun, Italian and Old World style foods. I'm always on a mission to find true authentic recipes. When I wanted to learn how to make tamales, I read books, gathered recipes, watched videos, and in the end, I paid to take a class from a Hispanic lady who gave me her grandmother's recipe and showed me all of her secrets and techniques she uses. Needless to say, my tamales are perfect and my greatest compliment came when my neighbor, who is also Hispanic, asked me for the recipe. Making kolaches. Yes, a baking item! It wouldn't be Christmas without them. It's my mother's tried 'n true never fail recipe. I'm best know for two things: My chocolate truffles and cajun food. After many, many years of trials and tribulations, I finally mastered the art of chocolate. I make my very own candy shop style truffles, English toffee, caramels, etc. Someday I hope to make a business out of it. My friends also call me the "cajun queen" because of my cajun cooking. The funny thing is, I grew up in the mid-west, never had cajun food, and I don't particularly care for it. I made a pot of jambalaya after my husband traveled to the south and told me how much he enjoyed the cuisine. That marked the beginning. I have an annual Mardi Gras party every year. I do all of the cooking and my friends who are from the south or who have actually been to Mardi Gras tell me that they can't remember the last time they had cajun food that good. My Cinco De Mayo party. It was a disaster! One of my faults is that I'm a perfectionist. When I have a party, I do all of the cooking. I am very organized and systematic in how I do things so everything goes off like clock work. Well, my 25 guests (who all work together) called and said that things weren't going well at work and would probably be 2hrs late. No problem, I'll just push everything back 2hrs. They ended up showing up on time! The food wasn't ready, I'm trying to rush with 25 hungry people standing around me in the kitchen. I had crock pots going, my husband was grilling, but nothing in the oven was getting done. Turns out the thermostat was going out. Anyway, by the time the stuff in the oven was ready (and not properly cooked), everything else was overcooked or cold and people were no longer hungry because they munched on chips and salsa. I ended up tossing out most of the food. I haven't had a Cinco De Mayo party since.