I'm a baby boomer brought up on convenience foods of the 60's - the most home cooking I did was helping my grandma bake when I was little. Was married briefly to a Sicilian whose family cooked so I didn't have to, but did learn the joy of eating. Then I married a man who loved to eat EVERYTHING and we moved to Arizona in the 80's. With time on my hands, and exposure to Mexican and Southwest foods, I decided to learn to cook them and everything else I could manage. I like to craft-cook; I call them my "projects" - gumbos, international dishes, elaborate desserts. Also have loved to make bread since the granola-girl era of the 70's. Much easier now with the advent of the bread machine which I use mostly just to make the dough. Then I can form and bake it however I like. We're lovin' the results if you could see our scales. Cooking together with my daughter and watching her develop specialties of her own, and making crazy big meals with our best friends of 40 years. Making sushi that my guests said looked better than our local grocery's, and manicotti crepes from scratch. Waldorf cake (aka red velvet cake) which my family still refers to as "red lead" due to its weight - that thing was heavy!