I have always cooked - teaching myself. While I was a stay-at-home mom, I fixed big meals and always had complete planned meals. Now I am a landman working out of the house and my family is so busy they aren't home to eat very often. My cooking focus has changed to preparing food on the weekends and making quick meals when arriving home. I get up early to spend time in my garden and look forward to preparing new recipes with the fresh produce. I was in the catering business between the time my son was three and the birth of my daughter about three years later. On my last big job for a dinner theater production - it became my last job because of this situation - my son had the chicken pox and my daughter was about four months old. I was handling things reasonably well until my helpers sliced the pork loin too thick and were too generous with the portions, running out before the last table was served. Disaster in a small town where no grocery stores were still open for the purchase of a backup. Especially since that table was full of the movers and shakers in the county. I made sweet bread wreaths and personally delivered to each of the couples at that table to apologize. And then promptly retired.