I grew up in New Mexico, with a mom that was a tremendous cook and baker. She made everything from scratch, including daily home-made tortillas! I learned so much from my mom and have used those talents in many volunteer events. If you have kids, expose them to the art of truly cooking/baking and not just microwaving! I love to bake cookies, cakes, etc. I also love to make New Mexican food, including red enchiladas, posole and biscochitos. Besides fresh tortillas every day, my mom would make homemade bread and donuts. Every Christmas we would make the traditional cookies, but I love to make the traditional biscochitos from scratch and hand cut them instead of using a cookie cutter. I have passed that tradition on to my daughter. I worked as a waitress in high school and also worked in the school cafeteria. Those valuable exposures to a commercial kitchen have given me the experience to cook for several functions at my church for groups of anywhere from 20 people to 300! Thankfully, I have not had any. My mom always taught me to cook more than you think you need. Better to have too much than not enough!