I'm a government bureaucrat with more time than money on my hands. I love to cook for others but don't want to spend all day in the kitchen preparing a high-maintenance meal. I grew up in a potatoes six-nights-a-week family. Yum. My mother always cooked and baked, so I grew up remarkably spoiled, food-wise. This past Christmas, I finally got my mother to sit down and let ME cook a full meal for her. And she LOVED it. My very first pound cake -- I put the tube pan together askew and then sacrificed half of my carefully mixed true pound cake to the Bottom of the Oven God.