I learned to bake as a child out of panic. I ate all of my mother's shortbread cookies that she had hidden. I emptied my piggy bank, bought a pound of butter and made a batch. They tasted so good and the family loved them. I was 8 at the time and have been hooked on cooking ever since. I love it when years later people still talk about a meal they had at our table. We don't buy boxed food or frozen. I make up my pie crusts in big batches and freeze. I read and collect recipe books like people read novels. Then I take ingredients and ideas and come up with my own recipes. Trouble is I don't always write them down, but now my recipe books are all marked up with notes on each one. I work with the public all day so baking is a stress reliever for me. I made my roasted red pepper soup for a friend years ago and just the other week she was talking about it again. I would make a huge batch omit the sour cream and freeze it in containers, easy supper for heat and serve. I love inventing new things to cook or bake. This summer was smoking meats with apple wood chips (pork shoulder)smoked for 7 hours, oh my god it was so good. I experiment with different flavor combinations. One of my husbands favorites is turkey dressing with fresh chopped cranberries added and made with toasted raisin bread and orange juice. Every Christmas I make homemade chocolate truffles and have for years. My family won't let me stop, because Christmas just wouldn't be the same. Along with shortbreads and 3 different kinds of biscotti some dipped in white chocolate with dried cranberries and chopped cashews. One is not enough. Baking a cake for 200 people for a grand opening of a railway. Cake was decorated with a replica of their locomotive. Also a free standing Armadillo cake for the Goderich Little Theatre and the play Steel Magnolias. The surprise it was blood red inside. Also making deserts for a wedding of 150 people with no helpers. Time management came into play with all of them. When I first got married my husband said he liked chili. I had never made it before and it wasn't a favorite of mine so my taste buds didn't know the flavor they were looking for. He said he liked it hot, so I added chili powder, hot pepper seeds, hot pepper sauce and diced hot banana peppers. It was so hot he couldn't eat it. I've toned it down a lot now although I still like it spicy and serving it over rice tones it down.