I made my introduction to the kitchen after a third-grade nutrition class, when I went home to tell my mother that her home-made jam sandwiches "weren't nutritious". The answer I got to that was "Well, then, make your own."... Baking came as a self-defence to my mother's obnoxious health cookies... they just weren't the same as chocolate chip, which the other kids at school were getting. These days, I cook stuff that I can be in and out of the kitchen ASAP due to my work, sport and school schedules. I LOVE to cook for people, as cooking for one just isn't inspiring a whole lot of times. I'm also diabetic, which has meant a further interest in nutrition to keep me functioning at optimum levels. I like cooking comfort food -- food that isn't necessarily fancy, but that brings people to my table. Roasts with all the trimmings, a good lasagne (veg or meat), meatloaf... stuff like that. Not necessarily what you'd find at a 5-star restaurant, but damn tasty. Also VERY interested in the Slow Food movement... Sunday dinners (with extra cold roast potatoes!), and Saturday night beef and broccoli in front of Hockey Night in Canada. I also like the fact that I teach my mother stuff when I'm home.... Making chokecherry jelly and black forest cake at age 12; getting my father to eat my food after I tortured his taste buds with the theory "if one teaspoon of spice is good, two MUST be better...." I'd just moved into a new apartment, and I decided to bake an angel food cake from scratch. Got the egg whites whipped perfectly, the flour mixture folded in without decreasing too much of the volume and all of the batter into the Bundt pan.. only to find that the oven wasn't working properly and that the top element was set to BROIL... the fire alarm went off and the super came rushing up to see what the hell I was doing.. *blush* That, and the time in high school when I thought I turned the oven off with meringues in.... broiled them too. *oops* The worst part about that was that the meringues were the work of the school bully.