I come from a family of professional cooks on my father's side and some extremely enthusiastic eaters on my mom's. I love to cook dishes I haven't made before and will try just about anything if I have the right equipment. My dad tends to start meals by rendering bacon. The family then snacks on the bacon crumbles while Dad uses the fat to cook everything. I'm proud of anything good that comes out of my tiny, ill-equipped kitchen. I recently attempted a recipe for microwaved hard candy. The result was two inches of scorched candy coating the bottom of my Pyrex.