I am a mom and a retired grandmother. I love to cook, and since retiring have more time to perfect things like homemade pasta and baking skills. I am still trying to learn to make a successful, really crusty bread with lots of holes in it! This seems to be my biggest cooking challenge! I love to make Italian food. It is the food of my childhood and I believe the main reason my grandparents, aunts,uncles and parents all lived into their late 80's. I love making fresh pasta for manicotti, lasagna etc. I make wicked meatballs, spaghetti sauce, and have recently attempted my own homemade Italian sausage. Life is good! I made my family very happy last Easter with Ham, manicotti and the Cannoli Cake recipe from this website. I also made Asparagus with my own Hollandaise sauce from this website. It was all very successful and I looked like a Rock Star to my son-in-law!! Thanks Allrecipes! A terrible spinach souffle recipe tainted a delicious Rib Roast dinner on Christmas Day, but thankfully we had enough other sides to forget about that yucky dish. Sometimes it doesnt work out, but that is OK, life is a learning journey.