A hot topic around my office--and in my email inbox--is food. If we're not talking about what's for lunch or dinner by 9 a.m. something's wrong.

My cooking is driven by few things--mainly time and ease. I'm like a four-ingredient cook. If it takes more than about 20 minutes of prep and actual cooking, I likely won't do it. While I like baking more than cooking, baking still has to be quick and easy. It's that whole patience thing that I lack.

A few days ago I was at a friend's house for dinner. She made an incredible chicken dish, good enough to make at home. But when she started rattling off the recipe, I lost interest--too many ingredients=too much to do. (READ MORE)

My son's baptism is this coming weekend and I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with the perfect menu. At first, I was thinking go easy, buy everything. Then I switched to the idea of save money, make it yourself. Now I've settled on buy some, make some.

What to make, and what to buy? I was going to buy a cake, then I thought it's a quick and easy bake, just pick up a mix and voila, its practically done for you. But then I realized the mixes probably have so many chemicals and preservatives in them, not to mention my arch rival white flour.

So I went online, hoping to find a mix at Whole Foods or Trader Joe's and instead I found a recipe for a natural yellow cake mix, and I had all the ingredients in the house. (READ MORE)

Early fall wind blew threw the house as No. 1 and I sat at the dining room table. He was doing homework and I was keeping him company while going through the mail. The girls were alternatingly reading to each other and turning the TV up so blaringly loud that even No. 1 started to scold them like a parent.

Between writing spelling words and their definitions, No. 1 said, "Dinner smells good, Mom."

"Yeah, it really does," I said, thinking I should check the timer on the chicken I had baking in the oven.

It was a Wednesday evening and the fourth day in a row that I had made dinner instead of saying I was too hot, too tired, too annoyed or too lazy to do so and taking the family out for dinner. It had recently occurred to me that we didn't eat out nearly as often when No. 1 and No. 2 were toddlers as we seem to now that No. 3 is a toddler. I hated realizing that. (READ MORE)