Just for a little history, my husband and I and our family have lived on a farm in southern Idaho for almost 40 years. I grew up in the "city," but I soon grew to love country life. We've always had a large garden. We've filled countless jars of fruit and vegetables. Homemade bread was a staple in our household. But, here is the BIG SECRET!

I didn't start out being a good cook! I cooked very little as a young girl. I figured that if I could read, I could learn to cook. When I married my husband, I quickly realized that he had been raised on homemade bread and pies and just good home cooking. Being anxious to please him, I wanted to try my hand at making pie. As I tried to look at the pictures in the cookbook and follow the directions, it wasn't nearly as easy as I thought! After I rolled the dough out several times, only to have it fall apart, I literally screamed in frustration. My husband ran to see what was the matter and comforted me by telling me he really didn't like pie that well anyway. (Of course, it was his favorite dessert!) I gave up pie making for about 5 years. Then I attended a class at church taught by a prize winning pie maker. She taught me the secrets of pie making. After that, pie became a favorite family dessert, and I even won a prize for my pies. If I can do it, you can do it!

Bread making was a little easier to learn. I quickly became convinced of the health benefits of 100% whole wheat bread. Before bread mixers and bread machines, countless loaves were kneaded, baked and served hot with butter and honey. Through the years I have experimented with various amounts of oat and wheat bran, flax meal, gluten flour and soy flour to come up with a very tasty, delicious bread with a higher fiber and protein content. I would like to share that with you.

I found my sourdough biscuit recipe years ago when we moved to Texas. I was given a welcome packet to the community and in it was a recipe booklet that had this recipe in it. I've been making them ever since and have never seen the recipe duplicated. My dinner guests always look forward to these biscuits. I'm now giving my secret recipe out!

I had been making cinnamon rolls for years, but they just weren't as good as I wanted them to be. Again, I came in contact with a champion cinnamon roll maker. I learned some simple techniques for working with my roll dough that produced high, light rolls. There's also a secret in them, as well.

My mother's apple dumplings always bring back special childhood memories. My great grandmother was born in Denmark and the recipe come to this country with her. It has become a favorite of my family as well. Many a time did my little girls gather around to help cut out the dough and wrap the apples. What fun memories! Now, I HAVE to have apple dumplings whenever the family comes home.