I've lived in Mexico for 12 years. Not just having Mexicans around me, but actually living with a Mexican family in my home for the past 7 years. They are Huichol, and I have picked up some wonderful cooking "lore" from Miguelina. I also play piano, am an author, love to read, and am too disabled to much of anything else. I've always loved baking. But my real favorite is the thing I'm lusting to eat at the moment. My family was German, and my mother a very fine cook, but only of fairly simple, straightforward foods, with little emphasis on high seasonings. I had to develop my taste for such things much later in life. By now, I am a much better cook than my mom was. She had no sense of adventure! A Christmas dinner for 10, with a salad bar as complete as any restaurant, a huge standing rib roast with Yorkshire pudding, and a to-die-for "chocolate mousse" dessert. The mousse, however, wanted to be a tragedy. It wouldn't set. In desperation, I stuck it in the freezer, and every one just loved the "homemade chocolate ice cream"! The time when I stupidly added water to a pyrex roasting pan with a beautiful beef roast in it and the darned thing exploded. Lost both my pan and my roast that day. At least I didn't lose any blood or skin - the hot glass flew all around me but didn't touch me at all. So it could have been worse!