I am married with a 13 year old son and two step-daughters ages 18 and 17. I work full time so I don't get to cook as much as I would like to, but on the weekends I like to relax in the kitchen and try out new recipes. Anything sweet; cookies, cakes, muffins and comfort foods like meatloaf, stews, mac and cheese, etc. I also like to cook southern and creole dishes for my husband since that is where his family is from. It has been a challenge though, since I'm from California, it's been a real learning experience! Thanksgiving dinner - my mom makes the most awesome stuffing, which I still can't duplicate! My husband's employer held a healthy cooking contest open to employees and spouses so I created a soup which I called "Southwest Chicken Soup." It was the first time I ever made up a recipe on my own. I submitted my recipe and was chosen to participate in the cook-off with 9 others. To my amazement, I won first place and the prize was my beloved Kitchen Aid stand mixer. I had always wanted one, but never had the money for it. It was so exciting - there were so many good recipes that I really didn't think I had a chance I think what clinched it for me was my presentation. And where do you think I've learned how to make pretty presentations?? From all of you at All Recipes of course! The first pie I ever made was a sweet potato pie that I made for my husband when we were dating. Now, I never grew up eating sweet potato pie so I really didn't know what it was supposed to look like. I bought the wrong kind of potatoes and they were white inside instead of orange, but I didn't know at the time what color they were supposed to be. The sign at the store said they were sweet potatoes so as far as I was concerned they were the right ones. Well, let me tell you, when my husband saw the pie he had the strangest look on his face and he asked "What happened to it?" I said, "What do you mean?" Because I was so proud of it, especially because the crust didn't turn out half bad. He told me "It's not the right color." That pie was the most awful shade of yellowish green that you ever saw. I thought it looked kind of gross, but I figured that was how it was supposed to look - I had never seen a sweet potato pie. We took a picture of it & still laugh about it to this day!