WHEATON – When she was a child, friends of Rochel Melka knew that if they were coming over to her house, they were in for a fresh-baked, gooey treat.

"Baking cookies is just one of those things that I've always done," she said. "I can't put my finger on why. But I guess I do love the taste of them."

That passion stayed with Melka well into adulthood, as she baked cookies for her four children after they came home from school.

She has a history of being entrepreneurial, she said, having opened a business called Distinctive Gift Ideas that caters to customer appreciation gifts.

But she never pulled the trigger on turning her love of baking into a profit-driven venture.

Until inspiration struck in 2009.

The idea came to her in Cabo.

"I wascoming home from a girlfriend's daughter's wedding, and I was sitting in the airport with a bunch of my friends," she said. "And I just decided that I was ready to start this cookie company I was talking about."

Right then and there, she said, she and her friends came up with the name for her business: MelkandCookies.

Four months later, the Wheaton grandmother was churning out bags of frozen, hand-scooped, all-natural chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookie dough for area retailers.

The various ingredients sound more like a grocery list than a chemistry set, which was important to Melka, she said. She believes that emphasis on natural ingredients will help consumers change the way they eat baked goods at home.

"It's a good, solid cookie," she said. "My goal is to