By FATHER KENNETH SMITH
Guest columnist

As a child growing up in Natchitoches, Louisiana, I wasn’t very athletically inclined, so my kitchen at home became my comfort zone, the place where I learned how to cook and bake from an early age.

I remember using my mother’s “Betty Crocker Cookbook” to guide my first solo culinary effort: a chocolate-frosted cake, made completely from scratch. It turned out great, and I was hooked!