@Josh Indiana
My mother left home for college when I was 7, so like my older brothers, I've been cooking from a young age. My dad used to give me 20 bucks and send me to the grocery to feed the four of us for a week. I became very price conscious, and soon learned that "convenience" packaging is expensive. Instead of buying the Chef Boy-Ar-Dee spaghetti dinner, I could buy pasta, sauce and cheese and have money left over for an extra pound of bologna. Then I discovered a recipe for sauce on the back of the pasta box; all the ingredients together were less than a can of sauce, and they tasted better too. Thanks to one recipe on the back of a Mueller's spaghetti box, I've been a scratch cook ever since. Mom graduated and came back home, got a great job and never did learn to cook that well—but all of her sons are fantastic in the kitchen.