While in college I tried many types of art, from music to painting, only to find out that while I was okay at them- I wasn't great at any of them. I took a photography class and it all changed. Creativity meets science- this made sense- I was great at it. You're probably asking-"What does this have to do with cooking?" I'm getting to that. Years later, after the birth of my second child, I was confronted with the need to learn how to cook. I played with a few recipes, suddenly seeing another aspect of my life where science meets creativity. My imagination took off. I taught myself cooking methods, knife skills, basic sauces. A controlled creativity- it's now totally instinctual. I rarely cook off recipes anymore. I can adjust the recipe in my head to account for various conditions like weather, protein contents, temperature disputes... it all is instinct. Herbs, specialty cakes, barbeque, latin foods, asian foods, southern foods, appetizers My grandmother was from Mexico and passed on an enchilada recipe that is to be inhaled. My mother makes them now for us- every visit-no matter what holiday, day of the week, or reason we have come to visit. My greatest triumph in the kitchen is when I finally got my five year old to eat tomatoes. (She loves them now.) I never had a microwave until college. Even now I rarely use my microwave for more than defrosting foods. Last year I decided to make a baked potato in my old microwave. Ten minutes later-the smoke alarm went off. I had charcoal briquettes in my microwave. My mother-in-law turned them into giant beads for a necklace... and she wore them everywhere for a week... just to remind me that I make mistakes in the kitchen, too.