As one of seven children I was assigned various cooking duties from an early age. My mother was/is a gourmet, spending hours in the kitchen working newly discovered recipes. I like to cook, and really enjoy it when something turns out well and people like the resulting food. I like to use allrecipes.com to look at a bunch of recipes for the same food, read the various reviews and suggestions, and then pick and choose the ingredients and methods that I think look best. I very rarely follow a recipe exactly. Thai, Mexican and Southwest cuisines. I like it spicy HOT, and sometimes have to separate quantities of food; some to finish for the family, a some to finish fiery-hot just for me.