I am 62, married and I love to cook and bake. I read cookbooks like most people read the newspaper. I like feeding people healthy, hearty soups and casseroles and homemade breads and cookies. I am interested in pioneer times. I love to read mysteries. I love the ocean, as well as the mountains. I like animals, especially dogs. I cook all different types of foods. My husband is Portugese and Italian, so I have learned a lot about those kinds of foods. I like Mexican, East Indian, Asian, etc. Right now I am on a quest to find an Italian spice blend called tamara. I know what is in it, but do not know the proportions of the ingredients nor in what type of recipes it is used. Today for dinner we are having h/m bread with roasted garlic butter, and a salmon loaf containing bread crumbs, eggs, cream cheese and green chilies. My daughter calls me the spice queen. I like growing them, drying them and using them in my recipes. I like to make h/m bread with all kinds of whole grains in it and sometimes I add herbs and spices. No I do not use nor own a bread machine. I do have a heavy duty mixer which kneads the dough for me. 1. bleu cheese dip for my daughter at Christmas 2. my grandchildren always played with a bit of the bread dough when they were young 3. pickled garlic, green beans, asparagus, mushrooms for my youngest son 4. home canned fruits and fruitsauce and jams for my children and grands. 5. homemade breads and rolls especially for the grands 6 chicken & rice baryani(spelling?) to share with my granddaughter, Robyn I have developed my own recipes for a lot of the items I cook and bake. My two best recipes are for breakfast cookies and Ezekiel bread. I have had a lot of tragedies. The two that are the most memorable are: 1.I tried to bake a chocolate cake from scratch, but it did not rise. I had to bring it for a dessert at a club meeting and in those days you could not just stop at the grocery store and buy something from the bakery. I swirled a lot of frosting on the sunken cake and took it to the meeting. They said it was the best brownies they had ever eaten. I just said "thanks". 2. I was making a spinach souffle and did not know to "wring out" the water from the cooked spinach. My souffle rose perfectly, but my family would not eat it 'cause it was green from the spinach water.