Single mom with a 17-yo son, living in Sacramento, CA with our cats - Spencer, Sissy, and 2Z. Chopped salads, spaghetti sauce, bread baking, and creative spicing! Anything in a crockpot. Anything with vinegar. When I was a girl and learning to cook, I volunteered to make meatloaf for my family. I did it just like I'd seen my mother do so many times before. EXCEPT! When it came to adding garlic powder, I figured if a little was good, a lo would be better. WRONG! My parents gallantly tried to eat what I'd cooked but in the end even cubing it very small and mixing it with pasta the next day for a casserole couldn't disguise the fact that it was almost poisonous with the amount of garlic I had added. To this day, I've been light-handed with garlic powder. Now...about the blue-colored salad dressing I once made. Tasted great but the blue color simply wasn't appetizing. Lesson: Don't color your vinagrette! And, then there was the chicken that would not cook. Frozen chicken into the oven in the hopes that it would cook. (I really DID know better) Outside was crispy and appetizing, inside was raw and cold. Even a trip into the microwave couldn't salvage that contrastrophe. We ate out!