My essential food ingredients: cheese, tomatoes, chocolate, cinnamon, and ground peppers (black, Cayenne, and white). Some of my non-cooking interests: reading, gardening, and crafts. Various foods and recipes make up a big chunk of my childhood and early adult memories. Baking was my first love of cooking - and I was really good at it before getting out of junior high. (Probably due to my famous sweet tooth. ~lol~) Some of the recipes (meals and desserts) we made growing up were in cookbooks with lots of changes penciled in. And some recipes were just handed down by showing how to make the food. I have so many of my recipes that I haven't gotten onto the computer yet. Somehow, there is always something much more fun to do than type them up! And with all the cookbooks and loose recipes on my shelves, you'd think I'd have started this project quite a while ago!