1. What inspires you about food and cooking?

Well, the thought of starvation is a big motivator. You see, there is so much bad food out there that I was forced to learn how to cook so I could prevent that starving thing I mentioned. Not that there isn't a wealth of food out there, but I subscribe to a little thing called Sturgeon's Law. Life is too short to eat crappy food.

In fact, now that I think about it, learning how to cook is only half the battle for most people. They should learn how to eat well. Any animal can eat. But we are in a unique position to eat well - thanks to opposable thumbs, fire and enlarged frontal lobes.

2. Can you give some tips to our mom readers on how to have fun while cooking?

Get the family involved. At the very least, it's Three Stooges type fun and gives you stories to tell around the holiday tables for years to come. At the very best, everyone learns, everyone appreciates and that family table at the holidays becomes a much more special place.

3. You seem to prefer baking cookies to cooking other dishes. Why is that?

Well I don't. But it is one of the things that people seem to enjoy reading about most when they come to my blog - such as it is. Cookies are a gateway food - it eventually leads to the harder stuff like puff pastry and pate en croute.

4. What advice can you offer on the correct method of baking cookies? Which steps of a cookie recipe do you think most people get wrong?

Get a good oven! Make sure it works correctly. Get an oven thermometer and check it every time before you stick the cookies in. There is nothing more disheartening than sweating over an elaborate dough only to find that your oven is a blistering 100 degrees over the proper temperature. The smell of burning cookies five minutes after the dough goes in the oven is an odor you never quite forget.

I think that the most important step in following a cookie recipe is reading it. No kiddin' folks! You should read it over a couple times before you even get the butter out of the fridge. Professional chefs talk about mise en place (which is French for "getting your ingredients together") - the home cook needs to understand the processes of the recipe as well as the ingredients needed - especially if it is a new recipe with techniques you have never tried before.

5. What special methods do you use to prepare your delicious dishes?

"Special methods" implies some kind of secret - as if I stole the recipes from the NSA or some other three letter acronym. I look for solid techniques and methods that seem to work for others. I'll try something and if it doesn't work, I start looking for another solution; all-beef meatballs for example. Mine always came out tough until I read about a panade, which is a combination of stale bread and milk. You soak the bread until it is soft then squeeze out the excess moisture. Then the mixture gets worked into the meat instead of breadcrumbs. The combination of starch and milk keep the meat from getting too tough when you cook them. And it wasn't a new invention - Italian grandmas have been doing it for centuries. I just had to catch up to them.

6. Can you tell our readers about ways to make home cooking simple?

That's a loaded question. There are lots and lots of ways to simplify home cooking. Some are good, some are not so good and some are down right heinous. I think the first thing I would recommend is to develop a repertoire of standard recipes. For example, pasta sauces that go together quickly with items out of the pantry. If you are constantly trying something new, you will only stress yourself out, your family and your budget. Trust me - being a blogger means that you are always on the lookout for something new and exciting, but after a while the family was asking, "When are your going to make spaghetti and meatballs again?"

7. What is a Cookie Confab?

A Cookie Confab is an excuse for myself and my two best friends, Debbie and Gail, to get together around the holidays, eat good food, drink good booze and make cookies for our circle of families and acquaintances. We tried the cookie exchange thing - but you can only eat so many overly decorated extremely sweet "Christmas cookies" before you curl up in the corner and have a case of the sugar sweats. So back in 2005, we three amigas got together and made an evil pact to bake as many types of cookies as we could in a three week period and give them out as presents.
 
The rules are as follows:

• No chocolate chip cookies. Those are everyday cookies and this is Christmas, dammit.

• No peanut butter cookies. See number 1.

• Cookies are divided up equally. Except when Gail's husband Jim is around and cookies disappear at an alarming rate, then we dun her for his sneakin' ways.

• There will be no drinking. Every time Debbie gets a few drinks in her, she is up on the table and reliving her days as a "dancer" at the Thirsty Eye.

• No feeding cookies to the monkey. Too much sugar and he goes bananas.

As you can see from my blog we break rule number four on a regular basis - my hubby thinks Debbie is an excellent dancer.