I used to cook frequently and started while in elementary school with simple things like cakes, cookies, pound cake and cheesecake. These days I cook occasionally and look for quick and easy recipes that combine little work and time with great results overall. Breakfast and dinner are the meals I generally cook but my personal favorites include baked items (cookies, cake, brownies, etc.) and desserts. I love the food I grew up with -Mom's fried chicken, Aunt Ida's tamales, Grandma Ybarra's tortilla's and Grandma George's cream cheese pie or whatever you call it. Yum. Growing up when I did exposed me to Mexican, German, Polish, Greek and many of the other tastes of America. To me, a home made meal alone is a tradition and for me it doesn't get any better than that. I can't make fudge. The last time I attempted to make fudge like my Mom does it came out more like hot fudge, it didn't firm up. I have since found a quick and easy fudge recipe that requires few ingredients and little effort and provides great success which is only limited my my own creativity. I used to teach cake decorating and decided to make a gargoyle city night scape cake for my sons birthday one year. I created royal icing building sides and put them on cookie sheets to dry/solidify. I ran out of "safe" places to put the cookie sheets & opted to place a couple in the oven on racks. Unfortunately I forgot they were in the oven, turned on oven to preheat for the cakes and started smelling something sweet -cooking royal icing. Fortunately I managed to save it before it was too late.