I have been cooking since I could walk. My grandma taught me most of my skills. She always inclued me in her kitchen, staring with decorating cookings and I became an expert at pie crusts. I began reading recipe books and exprimenting on my one. I would make a new dish for my parents every Sunday. My dad would eat every bite no matter how good or bad it was. Now I have a husband and 3 girls who I enjoy to cook for. Pierogies, Hot Tamalies, Sweet & Sour Chicken, Egg Rolls, Roasts with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Lasagna, a variety of casseroles, Christmas Cookies and Candies, Lumberjack Breakfasts, anything that keeps me in the kitchen. When visiting my other Grandma in Germany, the whole family would gather and make hundreds of pieroies. Mashed Potatoes & bacon, Sauerkrout, and sometimes blueberry. Now I've learned and can make them with my mom and daughters. Those frozen store bought things give pierogies a bad name. I believe hard work brings unbelievable rewards. Finding ways to get my husband to eat his vegetables. When I married him, he would only eat corn and green beans. Now he eats spinach, brocolli, aspearagus, peas, etc etc etc Every year for halloween, I make beef stew inside of a pumpkin. I was so impressed with this recipe the first time I made it, I decided I was going to impress my girlfriends and make it for our girls weekend out. I made the stew, stuffed the pumpkin, put it in the oven and proceeded to party with my friends. I was not watching the pumpkin close enough and forgot about it. It collapsed in my friends oven and we had stew every where. No one got to try my stew and no one was impressed. I was so embarrassed. At the time, my friend was my husband's Aunt. That was the first day that he met me. I must have impressed him. However, every year at Halloween he reminds me of my diaster.