I am a young-ish Army wife married to the best guy in the whole world! I cook A LOT for my husband's Army buddies, and living in the South, we BBQ a lot in the summer, so I entertain quite often. Cooking has ALWAYS been a hobby/pleasure of mine. I am great at pie making...crusts, custards, chiffons..you name it, I can do it and do it WELL! I make the worlds best brownies and I love to experiment with low-sugar/sugar free baking. Boterkoek and Speculaas cookies for Christmas, and my tradition of making everyone in my family their requested birthday cake as my gift to them. My first Thanksgiving that I cooked everything all by myself. We had three of my husbands friends over, and all I heard was raves all day! Everything turned out perfectly and everything was eaten up! My ego was definitely stroked that day :) One of the first times I made a birthday cake for my mom, I was maybe 10 or 12, I pulled it out, a perfectly baked German Chocolate, and put it on top of the stove. I noticed a bit later that something smelled burned. I lifted the cake and looked beneath the pan...I had set the cake on a hot burner and had a nice little black circle burned right onto the bottom of the cake. I was devestated. My mom just ate around the burn :)