My mother had cancer when I was very young so I had to learn to cook or live on T.V. dinners, Yuk! I read every cookbook she owned and learned the finer points by watching Julia Child, James Beard, and Graham Kerr. My husband was in the military for 21 years and that exposed me to many different cultures and countries. I always looked at a move as another experience to learn something new and expand my cooking knowledge. Holiday meals, and fancy deserts. Every year since my oldest daughter, (now a doctor) was five I have made some kind of ginger bread house, church, barn etc. Now my grandchild comes to help me decorate whatever I choose to build for that year. I have won more awards and cooking contests than I can count. But my biggest triumph was being able to follow any recipe at the young age of nine. When I was about 11 I tried to make jelly doughnuts. They weighed a ton and were just terrible. Now I can produce the lightest, most heavenly doughtnuts to make Krispy Creme and Dunkin Doughtnuts bow low.