Single mom of a wonderful teenage son. Love to cook, hard to find time for it! I work full time in the office of a cardiologist. I enjoy it but it can be very stressful! I am always looking for ways to stretch every dollar, so I cut coupons, use cold water for all my laundry, run around shutting lights off all the time, and pack my own lunch for work nearly every day. And I love my slow cooker!! :) I would say that sides and appetizers are my favorite to make. I love to come up with that "just right" accompaniment to a main dish and so sides are usually what I volunteer to bring to those "bring-a-dish" occasions with family or at church. Baking cookies at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I do okay when I am helping -not so well as the "lead" baker. Baking is NOT my strong suit! But I do love the process and togetherness. My first "solo" Christmas dinner was my biggest. Everyone expected a disaster, but they were fighting over the leftovers! I did appetizers, sides, turkey, and pie for 10. I know, most cooks are saying "so what?", but... I was 19 years old and had never done a whole meal by myself before, never mind a holiday meal!And though the pies were made the day before, I did not find out I was preparing the meal on my own until 5:00 Christmas morning (long story). So for me, a triumph! Not too many disasters, thankfully. Once I was making a dish, and the recipe called for 2 T. chopped fresh dill. I didn't have any, and had no time to get to the store so used dried. Naive as I was about cooking at that time,I did not know to cut the amount if using dried.I went ahead and used the 2 T. of dried dill. I thought it smelled kind of strong, but I served it anyway. Horrible doesn't begin to describe it, really. Ugh. Nobody ate it, and it ended up in the trash. I definitely learned from my mistake!