I grew up in an extended family of fabulous cooks, so I have always loved good food, but did not learn a thing about cooking until I was grown and married. Unfortunately, as soon as I got married, we moved far away from home! Fortunately, I found the Joy of Cooking cookbook, and embarked on an exciting journey of discovery. In retrospect, I am glad I had to learn the "hard way". Otherwise, I might have just continued the cooking traditions I had been exposed to as a child, and missed out on a whole world of new culinary adventures. As one who grew up before the internet (or even personal computers) existed, I find this site a true luxury. Aside from food, I love the outdoors, dogs, cats, horses and good books. I would rather dig in the dirt than do anything domestic (except cook). I think baking is my favorite, but it's really hard to choose one thing! My absolute favorite food memory is Mama's Applesauce Cake. Holidays would not have been complete without that, but a close second is her Date Nut loaf. Unfortunately, both of those recipes were lost to us when she passed away. We have been trying to duplicate the applesauce cake, but never get it just right. I don't have a clue about the date nut loaf, but it wasn't baked. It was wrapped in a damp linen dish towel and placed in the fridge. When I finally mastered baking cornbread! Still working on biscuits, though I found a couple of recipes on here today I plan to try. We Southern girls have some high standards to meet with those, lol. Sooooooo many! What comes to mind right now is my first attempt to make pickles. That was 30 years ago, and still I shudder at the memory. The good news is that last night I made microwave Bread and Butter pickles from a recipe found here, and they turned out great. Yay, redemption!