I have been a member of Allrecipes since 2003 and it's amazing because it has served me when I was a meat eater and now after 4 years of vegetarianism it is still the first place I come to! My mom HATED cooking when I was a kid but I seem to have inherited my love of it from my Grandma. I have to admit, I'm not as big a fan of baking as Grandma was but I love to experiment with cooking. My mom wasn't overly fond of cooking when I was a kid but there were the handful of memorable recipes... a favorite was eaten on Fridays during Lent that my Grandma used to make when my mom was a kid and my Grandpa dubbed "Rubberband Casserole". Also as kids, my brothers and I used to go to my Grandma's house and bake & decorate Christmas cookies. Someday, I would like to do it again. :) The first time I ever made mashed potatoes.... not hard but soooo good! The first time I baked a pie (despite the rolling pin fiasco - see "tragedies"). Mastering my homemade spaghetti sauce. Inventing a vegan recipe called "No-Chicken & Dumplings" that is absolutely delicious and sharing it with friends who love it, too! :) This goes in line with my not being a big fan of baking. . . I saw a picture of Petit Fours and thought "I want to do that". Read the recipe and it seemed simple enough. From the beginning I should have known I was in for trouble. The cake didn't come out right and the icing was like soup. It was the biggest mess I have ever had in my kitchen with an absolutely inedible finish. : / Since that moment, I have stuck with baking apple pies and death by chocolate cakes only. :) Another not so much tragic as funny story - first time I ever baked a pie I was in one of my first apartments out of college. Made my own crust from scratch, went to roll it out and realized I didn't have a rolling pin. I called my Aunt Judy laughing hysterically and ended up using nice smooth glass.... immediately after finishing the pie (which turned out delicious), I bought a rolling pin...