My mother only used her few ‘tried and true’ cookbooks, and of course there was no internet. So…the pizza I ‘mastered’ was made from Bisquik where I saw it on the side of the box. Thinking back, it was probably pretty crappy pizza…but everyone LOVED it!! (Thankfully, I have since mastered a wicked yeast pizza dough:-)

I mastered a certain recipe of brownies at the same time. They’re chewy, have a melted marshmallow layer before this ‘to die for’ fudgey frosting. I still make them today. Maybe that’s where I got my passion for baking?!

Of my 3 sisters and 1 brother, I’m the only one that showed any interest in cooking/baking while growing up.

Then there was the time (same house, so I couldn’t have been much older than 6 or 7) I wanted soft boiled eggs for breakfast but mom was busy upstairs and couldn’t get to it fast enough for me – so she gave me directions which I very carefully followed, going up and down stairs as necessary for the next step. First I got just the right pan (which required a trip or two up the stairs to confirm), then I filled the pan with water to a particular level and then carefully carried it to the stove without spilling the water and then equally carefully put the egg in the water and turned the burner on to just the right setting. Unfortunately, I was thinking of what my Mom did when she made eggs for my Dad, who liked his eggs fried! So I had very carefully cracked open the egg before putting it in the water – and boiling it for 3 minutes! Although I had to wash that pan at every meal for the next couple of days, it never did come clean and had to be thrown away eventually.