1) You own or moderate several different Y-Groups. How did you get started creating these groups?
I love to cook, and my interest in finding different recipes to try, prompted me to start my first group, Linda's Busy Kitchen, over 6 years ago. After about 1 year we had trouble pulling up the recipes, so I opened the group at Linda's Busy Kitchen 2 where we still post recipes today. (Linda's Busy Kitchen is closed, but you can still join there, and look for your favorite recipes from the 18,000 recipes posted. )
As my group began to grow, I was worried that we would run out of room, as Yahoo had started deleting the beginning posts in some groups, so I expanded and made individual groups for our Desserts, Tried And True, Gourmet, and Chinese recipes.
2) Can you recall what instilled in you--perhaps even as a child--a love of cooking and recipe sharing?
At the age of 8 my mom and grandmother used to let me help them cook in the kitchen. They both were great influences in the development of my love of cooking and food.
My Home Economics teacher in high school taught me a lot, and helped me to develop my cooking skills. It was my favorite class.
Later on the cooking shows caught my interest. I loved Julia Child, The Galloping Gourmet, Maryanne Esposito, and now love all the cooking shows on the Food Network.
3) How many recipes do you actually have yourself? What category of recipes is your favorite?
I'm not quite sure what you mean by "have myself". I have access to all the groups recipes, which is over 100,000 recipes total, and have a collection of over 200 cookbooks. I have created my own recipes, and also collected and adopted many recipes and adapted them to my taste over the years, and have them posted under Linda's and whatever the name of the recipe is, in my "Tried and True" group.
My favorite recipes are the ones where I get an idea for a recipe I may have seen online or in a cookbook, and then create it to my own tastes. I also love creating new recipes from things I have on hand in my kitchen, and I love cooking with wine.
4) How have the individuals you've met through your groups and website changed your approach to cooking?
I now have many different types of recipes from other areas of the country and world that my members have shared with me through the years. Now I cook many more Ethnic and International recipes then I used to.