my sister and i were the "original latch key kids" i mostly learned to cook by myself. we were oddities! back in the late 60s early 70s sis and i ate a lot of tv dinners-people would stare when we would wheel by w/a shopping cart FULL of frozen dinners! swanson's meatloaf was my favorite. i didn't even mind when the tomato sauce was spilled into the brownie! i loved that tomato sauce-dipped all of my green beans in it too! i took home ec in the 8th grade and came home and made every recipe at home that we made in school-i loved it! in the 10th grade after taking a food service class in high school-i began to cook real food. i would look for a recipe, ask my mother to buy the ingredients and then go for it. they turned out pretty good and that's how it all started. i have an assoc. degree in commercial baking but am a stay at home mom. maybe one day i'll go back into the industry. right now i'm being very calorie conscious. have lost 20 lbs. since christmas and i'm on a roll! allrecipes.com is a lifesaver; the nutritional information and calories are priceless! in the past, i have have used allrecipes to utilize my crockpot and breadmaker (and still do) but i now mostly look for low calorie healthier dishes that are good tasting. i like to cook easy dishes that don't create a clean up nightmare! i gravitate towards tangy and sweet. although i have a baking degree - i don't have a great collection of non-commercial quantity recipes. i love allrecipes.com because it is full of wonderful people who love to cook and bake and share. my mother's mother came to Hawaii from Korea when she was 2 years old and whisked off the plantation and raised by well-meaning methodist missionaries. she did not know how to cook Korean dishes. my mother learned to cook some Korean dishes from my father's mother (a picture bride from Korea). i did not write down my mom's recipes but over the years have figured out how to make them and so i continue to make them for my family. i have since gained a renewed interest in my ethnic heritage and have been experimenting with many Korean dishes - some perfected - some not. i used to make wedding cakes for friends - a nerve wracking feat. i also used to make and sell cute gingerbread houses, naughty gingerbread men and women too! a lot! once i dropped an entire tier for a wedding cake after baking all day and night at 1:00 a.m. - i sat down, cried and made another one. cake was a hit but i was a zombie at the wedding!