Welcome to my Kitchen

My interest in cooking began in my grandma's kitchen.  It progressed with many crazy (mostly failed) experiments in my latchkey years. "Look, Mom, I made you a cake!" "What's in it and why is it blue?"
My first real tests as a "chef" began in my first job out of high school. I worked at a facility for developmentally disabled kids. I remember the first night I was assigned to prepare dinner for a group of 12+ people.  Slightly terrified I managed to make it through without poisoning anyone.
I didn't have a whole lot of resources.  I "phoned home" a lot for recipes that my mom used to make (porcupine balls was a favorite of mine).  I also used the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook that was previously hiding and dusty next to the microwave.  The facility recipe book was a jumping off point to get me started most nights.  After all, there was a menu to follow. But I took this book and tweaked the recipes enough to give them a more home cooked, less hospital food, feel.  I made them my own. 
Somewhere along the way I got assigned to the task of preparing the meals on every night I worked. Hey, if it got me out of laundry or clean-up, that was fine with me.
My first negative critics were mostly due to the fact that after I cooked, the kitchen was a disaster. In time, I learned to improve on that aspect as well, so that by the time I had the dinner on the table, all my pots, pans, and food prepping dishes were clean and drying.  (This skill has been lost somewhere along the way to now.)

It's been over 13 years since I started in that kitchen and I have cooked in many kitchens since, mostly my own and mostly for myself. I've had many inspirations along the way from my sister's macaroni and cheese with applesauce, or was it ketchup? or both? to my step-mom's yummy broccoli and cheesy rice, to Thai Kitchen in South Omaha (spring rolls!)
I have one guideline I try to follow whenever possible:
It has to be healthy AND taste good.
This is obviously a work in progress.  Most of my time spent cooking I just "wing it." Rarely do I write down recipes. This is my attempt to begin archiving my cooking successes and share them with the world.