I can't remember when I started cooking but I know I have been cooking at least 50 years (am 57 now). I am a recipe fanatic!! Always have been. I used to love cooking for large groups of people, but that has tapered off with age. Food has always been a reward I loved to receive and loved to give. I can't imagine heaven without a chiefs kitchen and a well stocked pantry. I love cooking warm, hearty soups and stews in the winter with rich, yeasty breads. In the summer it has to be pasta salads and BBQ. Baking deserts is a passion in the winter but give my rich, light, airy deserts in the summer. I have adopted my two granddaughters so finding things to please a 13 and 10 year old are always a challange. Even though they love my cooking, it disappoints to hear them beg for fast food! I still love to try new foods but always return to the Southern Style cooking of my mother's and my youth. Holidays are always the best times for laying out a great table! My mother and her mother before her really celebrated food and the holidays. I haven't a large family here in Arkansas but that doesn't stop the "Food Fest!" when it comes to holidays. Cooking any really large meal is a triumph nowdays. Because of my health, I really have problems cooking the hours I used to put in on a "Food Fest". Now I do take some shortcuts that used to be Taboo. A great triumph for me is finishing a large meal one night and being able to get up and around the next without a great amount of pain!!! Tragedy? I guess it isn't so much a tragedy of failed cooking but that my children and grandchildren have no interest in learning the "Art" of cooking that I learned at my mothers knees and has taken me 50 years to cultivate. I so wanted to pass down what would be my "Food legacy". My treasured cookbooks are without a willing beneficiary!