I'm a bookkeeper by trade. I raised 2 wonderful children, now grown and gone. My hobbies other than baking and cooking are crochet, reading, horse racing, and the Bengies Drive-in Theatre. I also enjoy playing board and card games. I love to bake cookies, bars, and cakes. I also bake my own whole wheat bread rather than buy store made bread. I love to find new chicken and pork recipes. I also enjoy using my slow cooker. Every year near Christmas our whole family gets together to bake cookies. This tradition was started by my mother and her sister many years ago for the purpose of baking gifts for teachers, people at church, neighbors, and such. It has now grown into a whole weekend home cookie factory out of all imaginable proportions. As in turn off the heat, because the ovens will be running non-stop from Friday afternoon through Sunday evening! Card tables for work space, bakeware from multiple kitchens, 10 batches worth of chocolate chip cookies mixed with your hands in a turkey roaster, and cousins, nieces, and nephews sleeping in every spare inch of floor space! It's the craziest fun we ever have, and we all get to see relatives that we never see any other time of the year. Six time blue ribbon winner with my family's secret sugar cookie recipe. No, don't even think of asking. The only way you get this recipe is to marry into the family! Well, the discovery that you can't do more than double the cream cheese cookie recipe was a pretty expensive mess....