I am a military brat from a family of 8. Now, I have 3 daughters of my own and my husband recently left the Navy and joined the Army. We get to try different foods from different regions of the country, its great. I always have to make minor adjustments to our normal grocery list as we move, it is amazing how we take some foods for granted when they are easy to find. I have been cooking since I was about 5 at first just helping. By about 8 I was making full meals. I have a really hard time cooking in small proportions, even though my family is a bit smaller now. I love cooking for other people. I am a potato junkie and love almost anything with potatoes. They are just so easy to use and can be added to so many different things. I also like breads a lot. Okay maybe I am just a carb junkie. I love having my daughters in the kitchen with me. Cooking becomes a family event most nights with everyone pitching in a little, its great and I think that it brings us a little closer. We are also very big on family dinners; no phone, tv or anything else, just dinner and family to talk to. My greatest triumph was getting the meringue perfect for Lemon meringue pie. I look at it now and say its easy but it took me 4 Thanksgivings and two Christmases to finally get where it was not only edible but good. I am still working on the perfect pie crust though. Meringue for awhile was a tragedy for me 2 Thanksgivings it wasn't even edible and came out either really runny or overly stiff. Another one was with my husband, I was making stir fry and he decided he wanted seafood so we tried crab instead of chicken (should have used shrimp but he loves crab), needless to say we all had pizza that night.