For me, the process of becoming a home cook was gradual. My mom encouraged me to participate and learn the basics of cooking when I was younger. I was also involved in 4-H and did some different 4-H projects in the kitchen. However, cooking was something I mostly viewed as a chore until I became fascinated with making bread by hand after watching my mom make it one day on a whim. After that, I moved on to trying new and different recipes as well as experimenting on my own. During college, I had the opportunity to travel to different countries as part of my studies. Some of my travel companions remember me as the most willing to try the most foreign of foreign cuisine. Mexican, Asian, bread! I also like going to the store to find new, different ingredients and then figuring out what to do with them. I always helped my mom make Christmas cookies every year when I was younger. One of my other most vivid memories is of the time my mom tricked my brother, sister, and I into eating beef tongue at dinner. Learning to make homemade bread- no bread machine! I like to experiment, and many times my experiments work out fine, but I have occasionally made some godawful stuff over the years. Just ask my family- they would eat it anyway, as bad as it was. One time, I tried to make some Brazilian corn starch cookies for credit in a Portuguese class. They ended up melting together in the pan and not looking like cookies at all. I brought them to class, anyway. The only person who had seconds was the professor, but I think that was just because she was pregnant at the time and willing to eat about anything.