[I]I love to read cookbooks outside on my deck. I enjoy looking at them over and over. I'm not much of a dessert person, however, I do love something sinful once in a while. I learned to cook from three wonderful people. My grandmother, Margaret who knew the true secrets of Southern Thanksgiving Dressing. The recipe was never written, but over the years I learned to make it just like her. I still make her dressing every year. My granny, Inez was more of a baker. She made the best sweet potato pies and coconut custard pies in the world. Everything was from scratch, and if she told you to use Carnation milk, trust me, it was the right thing to do. The last, but certainly not the least, is my mom, Jane. She taught me at an early age, that no matter what's on the dinner table, the food is always better served with family and friends. She could feed our family of six on a shoestring. Mom was always supportive when I first started cooking dinner for our family. At age 12, I really hadn't mastered biscuits. My three younger brothers would toss them around the table like baseballs. It would make me so mad. She'd make them stop, but we all knew if one hit the window, the window was gone! I have two wonderful daughters that I know will be terrific cooks someday. They love the old recipes and help me out in the kitchen whenever they can.[/I]