I'm a stay-at-home mom with two beautiful children. I love cooking, especially trying new recipes and then eating the fruits of my labors. Other hobbies include crochet, playing piano and organ, blogging (I even have my own recipe blog - www.baskersfunfoods.blogspot.com), and reading. My husband and I like to try out new recipes together. I'm a sucker for desserts. I love making just about anything that's sweet and baked, especially if it's a bit on the fancy side. Double-crust fruit pies, bundt and layer cakes, miniature tarts, sandwich cookies, parfaits, cheesecakes, you name it. I also enjoy making various types of bread. We have a bread machine, and I love making a simple dough, letting the machine do the hard work, then shaping it in fun ways before baking it. My family is big on our special holiday food menus. We always have a special breakfast casserole on Christmas morning. And New Years wouldn't be the same without Traveling Tacos and Hearty Cheese Dip, both with a healthy helping of tortilla chips. I grew up with these traditions, and have carried them with me to my own family. I have been teaching myself the art and science of the perfect pie crust. I learn something new with each crust I make, and they keep getting better and better. I feel a little surge of excitement and pride every time I serve something I've cooked; there is rarely a time when my cooking doesn't elicit many whole-hearted compliments. My daughter's first birthday cake was a disaster. I had found a recipe for ultra-healthy carrot cake with ultra-healthy cream cheese frosting. It was the ugliest, least yummy cake I've ever tasted, chock full of apple juice concentrate and raisins (even the frosting had raisins!) and whole wheat flour. Everyone tried to put on a good face, but I think my daughter was the only one who really enjoyed it, and that was because she didn't know any better. For her second birthday, I used a chocolate cake mix and a cream-cheese-and-cool-whip frosting covered in crushed candy. It was much better!