"Born in Des Moines, Iowa and being the oldest girl of six children, things were not that easy for me growing up. I was a child that was interested in anything that I could get my hands into. Grandmother kept house for a gentleman that had seven kids of his own and when we got together it was called the circus house. To help out in the kitchen for meals; grandmother would let me pull a chair up to the stove next to her and help cook. We had a lot of love for whatever each child wanted to do, mine was cooking. The recipes in this book are from the ti me as I grew up and when I was next to the side of my grandmother. The cakes were from her mother’s book and a few of them are from my mother’s childhood. I learned that if you are happy with something you must share it and it will please the other person trying it. Everything is worth trying once and if it’s good then you have overcome a hurtle. I have overcome a lot of hurtles in my life and wish to share these recipes with you. I have never had any of my food returned to me or turned down. I just never have made enough for friends or family to eat. As they would say aft er eati ng their plates clean “where is the food, we didn’t get any.†I hope all of these fi nd joy for you as well as they did and sti ll do for me and my family and friends that I sti ll cook for sti ll today. They may know how to cook but they always come home to the one that does the best job of all."