I'm a mother of two and live in rural Iowa, I started cooking with my mother when I was very young and it has been my job as well for many years. I am a home cook with a few fancy touches when necessary. I can feed a small army with little effort, or sometimes for two with 3 days of prep. My kids and my partner are my biggest fans, as well as those I've cooked for and served over the years Baking is my favorite thing to do in the kitchen, desserts, cakes, cookies, bars and cheesecake, We all love cheesecake We have a birthday dinner in our family. My mom started it and I continue it with my children. The birthday person gets to choose the menu for supper/dinner including dessert. I looked forward to it when I was a child and I look forward to doing it for my family now. This past birthday I was getting ready to plan my own dinner when my partner, Nativson volunteered his services. I took him up on it and made my dessert that morning while cooking breakfast so this was my first real birthday dinner since having kids of my own I'm learning to make some traditional Native American food. My partner is from New Mexico and he's Native American{Indian}, so that is currently my triumph, my past ones include mastering a Swedish dish called Ostakaka, creating my very own lasagne that is really good and has been a sell out in every restaurant I've cooked in. Baking my very firsr angel food, from scratch, the first time I made gravy and it was as good as my mother's.....PIE, I love pie and didn't know I could make one as good as mom's until about 4 years ago. We all love pie! I haven't had any that I would consider tragedies, although I made the above-mentioned lasagne for my now ex mother-in-law and my ex husband's entire family and everyone loved it, she glared at me all through the meal....afterwards my ex confesses that his mother had been trying for years to make a good lasagne, it was the standing family joke in fact and I made 2 pans that disappeared before her eyes. My ex father-in-law didn't even realize it had cottage cheese in it, he hates lasagne made with cottage cheese,he even suggested I give her the recipe, so that was kind of tragic, wasn't it?? hehehe