I've been cooking as long as I can remember. It started in my grandmothers kitchen...then my Aunt's house...as any good southerner knows the kitchen is a true sanctuary. It's my comfort zone...I love to bake during the holidays and now my 8 yr old daughter is discovering the joys of cooking too. : ) I thought mexican food was Taco Bell until I moved to CA. I love authentic mexican food and I love preparing it. My birthday is May 5th, which is a mexican holiday so we always eat mexican or I will prepare a complete mexican feast. My family LOVES my baked apples and cranberries for Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's so good and smells like pure love...they also love my chile verde. I found the recipe years ago and tweaked it to make it my own...it's so simple and very tasty. I guess it's been about 11 years now...when my husband and I were first dating he wanted to have a holiday dinner for his family at his house...I cooked everything...Ham with a wonderful peach glaze, stuffed bell peppers w/saffron rice, homemade scalloped potatoes, green beans and baked apples and cranberries which ever since that day have become a staple of mine at holidays...it was truly a feast...everything was perfect and I enjoyed every second of the preparation. I made chocolate chip cookies for the kids and some neighborhood friends one afternoon...I forgot to put the brown sugar in it so I tried to add it at the end and grabbed the "paprika" instead....