By the time you read this story Jackie Sherer and her children Zachary, Moriah and Xander will have landed in Naples to be with her husband and their father Jamie Sherer, who is serving as fire chief for two Navy bases in Italy.

This Gloucester native took with her the self-taught knowledge of cooking and said she is “looking forward to cooking with the ladies in the town” where she will be living. “I may even take some cooking lessons.”

Jackie says her interest in and love for cooking began “when I was 13 years old while living at Pinetta. I’d get off the school bus, come in the house, look at a cookbook and pick out a recipe I liked. Then I would go to the freezer, get what was needed and cook it, just to give Mom a break.”

From that point on, friends, family and visitors to the Morning Star Lodge, a mountain retreat in North Carolina, where Jackie’s family lived until very recently, have been in awe of what Jackie creates in the kit...