Hi! Well, I am a semi-beginner, as I just started cooking/baking about three years ago. I ended up realizing how much I enjoy it all. It has become such a therapeutic and comforting hobby - that even on a Friday night after a long day at work, I sometimes would rather spend until past midnight, cooking up something new.. how ever disastrous the result. :-) I rarely make the same thing twice, not because I don't like it, but because my curiosity for trying new recipes, overbears the tried and true. Pastas, pizzas, grilling steaks, appetizers, seafood, sauces, unconventional desserts,.. oh and Thai food. Yum! I kinda suck at baking though, as the end result is typically too dry, too under baked, too bland (I cut the sugars by half, most of the time and refuse to do otherwise), and just too-something. Hasn't stopped me though. :-b Oh and breads. Would you like to put turkey and swiss between two pieces of rock? Come on over here! Not holding my breath... My very first time making dinner for my parents - I think I may have been 17. I wanted to majorly impress them by making a creamy pasta dish. Well, the recipe called for "whipping cream", but I thought that was the same thing as "whipped cream".. aka cool whip. I was really shocked - and thought, wow, I never knew they used whipped cream in pasta dishes! :-b My parents seemed to be quite forgiving, but the question marks on their faces concurred with mine. I didn't figure it out until about 5 years later when I was at the grocery store and saw "whipping cream" in the dairy aisle. OOPS! :) Many cooking tragedies have followed. Smoke alarm triggers galore, foil caught on fire, skin burns..