At the tender age of 18, despite being a vegetarian for almost four years, I'd have to say my cooking skills were quite lacking. I could make a mean hummus and pretty much anything that came from a box...

As far as baking, for the birthday of every person in every one of my classes for the last two years of high school, I baked cupcakes for the whole class. My cupcake baking skills, therefore, were quite developed.

Luckily, I think I've become much more talented in the cooking arena in the last seven years. And, happily for everyone, I've switched to a vegan diet, so my cooking is tastier and cruelty-free! yum!

My culinary skills at age 18 went something like this...

- breakfast: wheaties with milk.. (ewe, milk...)

- lunch: a baked potato with yellow mustard on it (this makes my gag reflex go off just thinking about it)

or, a chick patty smothered in thai peanut sauce with a white flour tortilla.

- dinner: campbell's tomato soup with oregano and salt. (I thought oregano was so fancy then)

- snack: a handful of granola

Remembering this makes me wonder how I survived on such a measly diet...

When I was eighteen I joined a group-living volunteer program with absolutely no cooking skills. I was vegetarian, but not vegan, and I barely knew the name of most vegetables let alone basics like how to cook pasta.
I was in a situation where I had to cook for ten to twelve people! I soon learned how to choose recipes, chop vegetables, bake, and all of those other important kitchen skills. I discovered that I loved so many vegetables, nuts, nd fruit that I never knew before.
Before long, I was using vegan recipes whenever possible. After three or four months I realized that my diet was completely vegan!
Because discovering cooking and becoming vegan happened to me at the same time, vegan food has always to me meant exciting endless possiblities!
That was a year ago. I'm still going strong as a vegan and preparing food is one of my favourite activities. I love following new recipies or trying things without a recipe. Every weekend, a friend and I get together and cook vegan food together for the week. It's fun, yummy, and economical! Plus, we feel good about our food choices... I'm a vegan who's never going back.
-Ander

i was actually a pretty good cook by age 18. i gave up meat at about age 12, and although my mother was always really supportive of my decision, we had what was called "fend-for-yourself" nights when i got to be about 15. the entire premise was that everyone was to choose (within reason - cereal was okay, Oreos was not), prepare, and clean up from their own dinners. these usually occurred on nights when mom had to work late or was on carpool duty. i learned how to cook basics like rice, tofu scrambles, and basic veggie stir-frys. i taught myself how to make more complex items such as a creme brulee and a basic florentine quiche at age 17 because i was so bored with having stir-fry or breakfast foods on f-f-y nights.

i'm now the parent of a five-year-old who probably owns more cookbooks than i do!

I am young inspired chef going off to colllege soon . on march 10 i staeted my journey as vegan. i back slided . start over soon but problem is there were not a lot of sweet

I just turned 21 so being 18 wasn't too long ago for me! Thank goodness! As for culinary skills....I've always had a passion for cooking, but once I started college I kind of slacked from it. My culinary skills included making cereal or the perfect oatmeal in the microwave, putting together a bomb peanut butter, banana and jelly sandwich, throwing dinner together for my family through step by step directions (and about 4 calls to my mom for questioning) and my all time number one skill..making a "trail mix" from whatever is available in the closet to snack on and making a meal out of prepared snacks! But ever since I have become vegan (only about 2 months now!)my passion for cooking has returned and I love every moment of it..I wake up and go to sleep wondering what I'm gonna cook next! However, I have yet to try vegan desserts! So far the only baked goods or sweets I've made are banana muffins (a recipe I got off of here of course!) and they turned out pretty good! I would love to taste chocolate again!

At 18 I was married and pretty savvy @ baking. I loved to make sweets (w/ applesauce instead of butter, soda in a cake mix, veggie puree in breads). I was a vegetarian (since 11) and tried to make things that people couldn't tell were "fake". Did pretty well! Kudos to Hannah on such a fantastic way to live her ideals!! :-)

Can't wait to try these recipes out! So awesome that she has accomplished so much at such a young age.

At 18, Yikes! I knew how to boil water for pasta and seriously that was about it! I lived in my college dorms and lived on burritos, pasta, and sugar cereal. YUCK. I'd bring my own soy milk to the cafeteria as they were just barely starting to have vegan options (1994). It was a big night if we used our hot pot to make water and have noodles in our room. I don't miss those days at all and I definitely wasn't writing any cookbooks!

I like Hannah's approach to baking when she says just try things out! I used to really dislike being in the kitchen until I realized I didn't have to play by the rules. Now it is more like an outlet for being creative rather than just having to prepare a meal or bake dessert. Go, Hannah!

I have always been handy in the kitchen. At a very young age I was making dinners for the family and baking cookies or cakes. At 18 I was still the family cook, making breakfast in the mornings, elaborate dinners and tasty desserts. It's only in the last year that I have been fortunate enough to be able to incorporate veganism into my love of cooking and baking!

Are you kidding? Cooking/Baking skills? I am just learning how to cook at age 37 since recently becoming vegetarian and having lots of fun...nothing of this sort occurred at age 18, no way. Wow...this chick is awesome. The book is gorgeous!

At 18 I was struggling to be a vegetarian. I had a type of anemia that made most doctors tell me I could never be a vegetarian. I tried to make as many meat-free meals as possible, usually consisting of either pasta or mashed potatoes and veggies from a frozen bag. I would also eat chick patties and veggie burgers with chips or potato salad. As time went on my anemia got worse and I was made to believe I had to resume eating meat. I hated it, it tasted bad to me, and the animals were always on my mind. Years later I found a doctor who took several blood samples over a period of three weeks. She determined that I have pernicious anemia, a very easily treatable type where i have no problem with iron intake per say, but rather a b-12 deficiency. She said there was no problem with me going veg. I wasted no time and have recently become so immersed in trying new recipes and foods nearly daily. What started as a way for me to lose weight for my upcoming wedding has turned into a dairy-free diet. I even have my carnivore fiance loving some of my vegan dishes! That has me excited!

I am 16 now but please don't disqualify me. I love to cook soooo much, especially since going vegan. I have always cooked with my mom, I remember standing on a stool so I could help stir food in pots. I can cook just about anything with a recipe. I love experimenting in the kitchen and would love having this cook book to play with. Being the only vegan in my house I need some great tasting vegan desert recipes.

My culinary skills were slight at 16 yrs old. I thought I was so accomplished at making a fruit face from the Jr Betty Crocker cookbook! Carrot salad was was another great triumph. Eating a huge salad instead of meat was the extent of my veganism. I wasn't very educated at that age in the art of vegan cuisine. It wouldn't be until I reached by late forties that I truly converted with great success!

Hi there, thanks for this opportunity to share! I became vegan at age 17 so by 18 I understood the basics on replacements, nutrition, etc. However... I lived in a tent (yep, a tent) at the time and really didn't have the much-needed, daily access to a kitchen so I never really got the chance to cultivate my culinary skills. Once I entered college a couple of years later (now 24) and lived in a house, had a kitchen, etc, I really fell in love with vegan baking. Unfortunately, as I am still a student preparing for grad school, I don't have the moolah for a new cookbook so winning this one would be such a great gift for me! My husband is verging on going vegan so this would really help push him over the edge! Thanks for the opportunity and keep up the great work (both in the kitchen and at school!)

Do boiling hot dogs and stirring Hamburger Helper count as culinary skills? If so, I was a fantastic chef at 18. Fortunately, I left these "skills" behind to become a decent vegan cook...even my previously carnivorous husband has made the change to veganism. While most of my meals consist of nutritionally balanced items for the sake of caloric and vitamin/mineral content, the innovation I find in new cookbooks always takes my cooking to another level.

At 18, my culinary skills were quite developed and I was also very involved with entering cooking contests (seriously!) I actually managed to score several triumphs with some of my self-created vegetarian dishes; my "Vegetarian Stuffed Shells" (carrot puree-stuffed pasta shells with a bechamel sauce) won a prize in the New Haven Register's local cooking competition, and my "Garden Quiche" (can't recall exact ingredients but it featured cottage cheese and lots of vegetables)placed fifth in a very large national contest. I was very into it! And I'm glad to say I've continued coming up interesting vegetarian dishes ever since, though I am no longer "competing" (or "contesting" as they say in the cooking contest arena) with them. :)

At the age of 18, my culinary skills were so lacking that my hope was to earn enough income when I finally got a job to hire a personal chef! My mom had majored in home ec in college and we always had home-cooked meals, so go figure. It wasn't until I became vegetarian 4 years later that I actually learned how to cook. I learned by watching the Food Network and reading all the vegan cookbooks I could get my hands on. ;)

At 18 I decided to go on the Atkin's diet as a pre-college goal. My cooking skills quickly became emersed in grilling chicken and chopping cheese. I had given up most meat in 6th grade, but as doctor's kept telling my parents I was anemic they made me keep poultry in my diet. As I continued to mix salads and nix fruit I got crankier and crankier, until my will power failed me and I ran savagely around an Easter egg hunt - not outside helping one of the kids, but inside looking for baked goods and sugar. I binged on jelly bellies for an hour and then decided I should learn how to make pasta.
Since then I've gone vegan, but somewhere in those post-Atkins months, while gaining water weight back, I learned the preperation of all kind of dishes. These cooking lessons, though still meager compared to my current repitore, helped me survive through college dining halls and early office lunches of deli meats and pizza.
However, I still can't bring myself to eat jelly beans, even if they are vegan.

18?? I was in Germany, scraping by on, well, pretty much nothing. Between classes I rode my very old and unreliable bike to the Asian markets, where I could get a block of tofu for the equivalent of $0.80! Being in Germany meant I HAD to be a good cook, because there certainly weren't many vegan foods to be found. So in my tiny apartment, with only 2 stove burners, no oven, no microwave, and not enough refrigerator space for leftovers, I learned to make one hell of a delicious vegan chili--exactly enough for one. Thanks for this great opportunity!

I will never buy this book. The author was completely rude in a PPK forum, regarding recipe sharing. I'm putting my money where my beliefs are, and boycotting the book.

Well...at 18 I was eating dorm food at quinnipiac university and my culinary skills were about as advanced as spooning yogurt from the carton to my mouth, peeling bananas, making salads from the dining hall salad bar and dialing take-out places. Unfortunately I had no reguard for how cruelty free, processed or healthy my food was back then. I had such a warped perception! Thank God I've seen the light now and am eating healthy, unprocessed, cruelty free foods!

I'm relatively new to vegan baking in particular, so I really need some guidence from this cookbook! Also I go to Umass Amherst, I hope I bump into the author around campus :)

Lets see,being 18 is not a foggy memory for me, as i am 22 now. Being in the kitchen doing anything creative was not something you would see me doing, unless of course putting bubbles on you're chin and lip then screaming 'HO HO HO' while washing up is adventurous.
I was living at home and in the first stages of after high school studies. My wonderful parents did pretty much everything for us kids.When i announced my 'vegan dream' dad did what ever he could to make my eating habits remain healthy and regular. This was because he knew if he didn't have properly combined food there for me i wouldn't eat anything but brown rice and sesame seed oil. Good times!!

I'm feeling very insufficient at this moment. At eighteen I was more concerned with what I was going to keep out of body than what was going in. It's so refreshing to see someone so young loving their body enough to take such good care of it. I NEED this book. I rely on VegCooking.com for my meals and since I only get the recipe of the week, my family is ready for some help!

You go, Girl!!!

At 18... my mother was still cooking for me! The extent of my culinary skills reached the heights of grilled cheese and mac 'n cheese from a box. Since living on my own, I've adopted a more animal friendly lifestyle, and with the recent knowledge of an allergy to casein (dairy protein), I am now completely vegan. I'm 27 now and cook up a storm in the kitchen! I constantly amaze my friends and family with how delicious vegan foods can be. And I LOVE cookbooks! My most recent acquisition was 'Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World'. I have a large sweet tooth and love baking, so it is wonderful to see that I can still have yummy treats without dairy, eggs, or guilt!!!

At the age of eighteen, I was working in a small diner. I pretty much worked on everything, the grill, the sandwich bar, everything. I brought the idea of baking to the restaurant and at this time I wasn't vegan or even vegetarian. I made cakes, pies, dessert breads, cupcakes, cookies, etc. Since my transition to veganism, I haven't baked because I don't know what to do. Oh how I would love a cookbook with great vegan recipes!

At age 18, I had been baking for 6 years and apprenticed under a pastry chef for 1. I've always loved cooking and baking. Now I'm much older and I'm exploring vegetarian & vegan cooking. I prepare several meat free meals a week for my family. What inspired me at first was the health aspect but now its a matter of not wanting to participate in any aspect of cruelty towards animals. It's a slow process but we are getting there :)

4 years ago (when I was 18) was exactly when I started experimenting around the kitchen. It's sad that the reason for this was that my grandmother got really sick and therefore my mother had to take care of her on weekends while I was left alone in the house, unattended with no cooking skills whatsoever. Luckily I knew how to use the stove and the full extent of my previous cooking had been frying an egg (with relative success, might I add).
So I started experimenting with pastas, baked and cooked vegetables (when I came up with my recipe for deep fried curried pumpkin and carameled carrot sticks), and I remember sometimes making delicious things while at others I had just a huge disaster in the kitchen: nothing could be saved (or savored).
I progressed slowly, somewhat intermittently and never attended by any cook books or professional cooking advice. Just in the last few months have I bought my first cook book ever, and it made me realize what I was missing, and that I should have done it much earlier.

So yeah, getting this vegan cookbook as a giveaway would be great for me and do wonders to improving my dessert cooking skills.

At 18 I was a ridiculously active person - a Sophomore in college taking everything from calculus to archery, latin to symphony. I was in a ton of various clubs and organizations, including engineering societies to slam poetry. The extent of my cooking in the midst of all of this was putting together a bagel and cream cheese at the dining hall (as that was pretty much the only thing available with my crazy schedule) or occasionally eating a can of soup nuked in the dormroom when the dining halls were closed.
Since then I've become a pretty good cook now that I have the need, the time, and the facilities. As a veg head I'm always looking for cool, meatless recipes and look forward to the PETA veg recipe of the week as something fresh and new.

PS - Green tea tiramisu?! Yum! If I don't win this book I'm going to buy it anyways!

My 13 year old daughter has been a vegetarian for almost 2 years now. She goes back and forth about being a Vegan but no longer drinks milk. This cookbook looks like an awesome way to give her a view of what is out there. I am not a vegetarian but I am no dairy, egg or nut so needless to say our family is always looking for new recipes. What a great role model this author is!
Have a great day!

At 18 I could make bean burritos! Also rice. And anything that had directions on the box.

18 is such a long time ago and I did not become a vegan until later in life (45 years of age). I did not cook much when I was 18 because I had a sister who found her calling in the kitchen. I on the other hand was very creative with textiles of all sorts. I started becoming more interested in the kitchen when my sister moved away to college and I stayed home to go to a locale college.
I really did not start getting inspired until I started working in a Chinse Restaurant and learned how to cook veggies with out turning them to mush. My next lesson in cooking came when I learned that I could not tolerate fat in my food and I had to learn how to cook fatfree, then another lesson when my daugther was diagnosed with diabetes and having to learn to cook sugarfree and actually look into what a diet is. But the greatest adventure was when I learned that the reason I was always sick was due to food allerges. This started me on my adventure into Vegan cooking and you would not believe the change it has made in my life. I have found the most wonderful food recipes on earth and almost everyone who has tasted them agrees that vegan desserts are from heaven. I am now in my fithys with great health and a new outlook on life. I use myself as an example of what a vegan diet can do for a person. This has allowed me to help an exchange student, who always wanted to try to be vegetarian, staying with me to become vegan and she can not beleive how much better she feels. Thank you for the opprotunity to express myself on your site and the truely great recipes you share every week with me.

Wow, 18 was 13 years ago for me. When I think back to that time in my life, I am bombarded with so many memories of being a young adult venturing into college.
At that time in my life I was fairly advanced in cooking, however I was very lacking in education on eating right and consciously. Being raised by a single mother who was strict on independence, I learned to cook very early on. I cannot pin-point an age, but I do know that by 18 I was cooking thanksgiving dinner, easter dinner and everyday meals for my family. I think the most important thing about my learning to cook was that I learned by a. watching, and b. by doing, I never learned that "cooking was hard." For example, no one ever told me that making omelets was hard, so at 10/11 I was making omelets.
The one culinary experience that sticks out most in my mind is baking. I loved cake as a kid, and it seems that right away I was able to bake a perfect cake. Once my mother realized that I was better at baking than her, I became the "cake baker," funny as it sounds even baking my own birthday cakes. It was an accepted fact in my house and around my extended family that no one baked a better cake than me.
This "legacy" in my family has now followed me into my own family, with my kids and husband and also into my transformation into a vegetarian/vegan diet. I still do all the baking for my family (extended family too)but now my baking is vegan. I cannot begin to describe the feeling of accomplishment I get when I serve up a beautiful hand decorated cake, from scratch that is completely vegan. My extended family are far from vegans, in fact they are traditional southern eaters...however they look forward to my vegan baked goods, and love to hear the "exotic" ingredients I use. Slowly, but surely I am introducing them to a healthier and more conscious way of eating.
I'll end this with a story from my senior year in high school. I was challenged by another student that his "from scratch" cake would be better than my box cake. I accepted the challenge, and the next day we showed up in physics class with our respective cakes...same flavor. My cake won hands down. I know that I can still bake a mean cake as I did at 18, however this time its "from scratch" and completely vegan...and good for you.

I am almost 20 now, so remembering 18 isn't hard. Luckily, I have been imbued with the skill of culinary artistry by way of Oma, the German grandma, and Grammy, the Southern grandma. My mom worked a lot of jobs and my dad was always sick when I was a kid so I learned quickly how to cook. I made dinner for the family most of the time. I became a vegetarian in middle school so my family quickly turned vegetarian. But, at age 18 I was living all alone and doing the college thing, so I survived on Ramen and my own homemade edamame broth! Only recently have I been able to delve much more deeply into the baking aspect of life. I take Oma's Ohio famous recipes and tweak them to fit my diet. Holy cats is baking fun!

At 18 my cooking skills were poor, but I still managed to produce edible (to me anyway) vegan dinners etc.

My baking was always good though, I had a vegan chocolate cake that I'd bring out at parties and impress even the omnis. I think baking is better suited to my short attention span; if I mix everything up & just pop it in the oven it's fine. When I have to pay attention to things on the stove & keep adding things as it cooks I tend to end up with a mess.

I started cooking vegan when my young daughter decided to turn for the rights of animals and health. I didnt start at 18, but my vegan cooking skills are great with cakes, but need a lot of work for savourys. Help me Hannah, as my daughter would love this book too. Thanks

I graduated high school early and my first full time job was as a baker. I was 17 years old and a keyholder at the bakery. I baked a large variety of breads from scratch. My favorite was potato bread! I also baked the breakfast deserts for the morning, most of which were from scratch. This job fueled my love of baking. I worked there for a bit over a year and then during busy times. I've only recently become vegetarian and have been intimidated by vegan baking but I'm up for the challenge!

I am an awesome cook now, but my skills at 18 were severly lacking. Not entirely my fault, because my mom honestly cooked 4 times a year, potato soup twice, and chili twice. That was it. The rest of the time we ate mostly Godfather's Pizza, and Taco Bell. (How nutritious and well balanced, right?) I tried making "Spaghetti-O's" when I was 18, and figured if I turned it up on high, it would be cooked as fast as if I stuck it in the microwave. I forgot that it was cooking, and while there was no actual fire, one can of spaghetti o's on high in cheap pans equates to a big hole burnt through the pan, and a stench that lingers for a few weeks.

this is so cool
i really want it cause i want
to open a vegan cafe when i get older

At 18, I was pretty much feeding myself. I grew up in a family that eats meat. As of recently , I have lost my taste for meat. My kids don't eat meat, they've been like that since birth. They eat chicken, but no pork or beef. I'd like to try a vegan lifestyle. I'm a vegatarian, but I'm interested in what a vegan cookbook has to offer. I know a lot of people who swear by the vegan lifestyle. They say they feel better, and the food is great! I'm very interested in trying it. I love being a vegatarian, but what does a vegan cookbook have to offer me?!

When I was 18, I moved out on my own to college and knew nothing about cooking. I remember so many nights of eating ramen noodles right out of the package. Whenever I had the chance to bake in a kitchen, I always seemed to burn the rolls, crack the cheesecake, or forget an ingredient. Today my skills are a lot better and I learned a lot from my mess ups to love baking now. I would love to win a cookbook!

At the age of 18, I could cook anything. I'm not sure why, because my mom usually only cooked things that came out of a box, but almost instinctively I knew how to cook for myself. Maybe this began when I became vegetarian when I was 10, so many times it was cook, or starve. I moved out when I was 18, so that's when I really realized my full cooking potential. That's also when I figured out that there was no excuse not to be vegan. At 21, now I consider myself a great vegan cook and find time between school, interning, work, and starting a business, to make breakfast, lunch, and dinner from whole ingredients everyday. Interestingly enough, I am starting a vegan baking business with a long-time friend and now, business partner. It's called Conscious Confections and we're based here in Philadelphia. Our website should be up and running soon and hopefully everyone will be able to order from us, we're trying to straighten out all the regulatory stuff right now. So to make a long-story short, I had an intense drive to cook for myself by age 18 and coincidently, now I too am beginning my own vegan baking venture. Haven't checked gotten the chance to get ahold of My Sweet Vegan yet, but I sure have been hearing a lot about it. I liked the author's interview on Vegan Radio on iTunes.

I was 17 when I went away to college, but by eighteen I was adept at making "ironed" cheese sandwiches. (Back then we were not allowed toaster ovens, microwaves and the like in the dormitory.) At eighteen, I could remember every recipe we cooked outside at Girl Scout Camp. Since I didn't have sticks to make a fire or have green sticks to wrap Bisquik dough around, toast and stuff with jelly, I pretty much stuck with the 'fry some onions, throw in the ground beef and empty in the Campbell's vebetable soup' mush that we cooked at every campout. But I did then and still now enjoy oatmeal; cooked soft and/or toasted into granola. At 20 I lived in Cambridge,
Mass, going to school and surviving on fruit and vegetables bought after a "dime time" ride on the subway to the Haymarket. That's when I fell in love with Lime Rickeys. I still drink those in the hot summer months now, too. I owe my conversion to a vegetarian lifestyle to a friend who urged me to start trying recipes once a week from a recipe book and just keep cooking them only if I liked them. And I did. I liked them. I liked them so much I got really experimental. A recipe called "Neat Beet Chile" brought me back down to earth. Mostly I loved cooking vegetarian because I hated scrubbing pots and pans after cooking. I found that the vegetarian meals made clean-up a breeze! That got me hooked right quick! Besides, I loved the potent scent of fresh herbs during food preparation. It gave me that "Aaaah!" response that helped me slow down and savor my meals.

I grew up in foster homes all my life and have never liked meat of any kind hated eggs even the smell of them.I was always getting in trouble because I wouldn't eat anything that was made except for vegetables.The foster home I was in the last time when I was 15 let me cook some of the Vegan recipes I found in a book in the library at school.I was able to fool alot of people
at dinner.I ended up cooking 1 time a week for 125 people who lived in the home and they loved it even the vegan Saurerkraut Carob cake.I showed alot of adults and kids that you can still have all the good food without animals being harmed.

Well...I'll be 18 come May, so hopefully I can be considered?

I'd like to consider my cooking skills to be above average as I love to crack open a cookbook and try new and crazy dishes, but most of the time my little culinary experiments tend to turn out a little less than perfect :P But even when I'm not trying to be the next Food Network Star in my own kitchen I definitely don't shy from making my foods extra spicy and flavorful. My favorite spice to use is garlic or plain ol' black pepper. I love the feeling of looking in my pantry, pulling out seemingly unrelated ingredients and making something delicous out of them. It's a learning process, but I've found it insanely rewarding.

Now baking, that's in my blood. At my house there's a whole shelf devoted to baking books. I've been baking with my mom for as long as I can remember. I was one of those little girls with an EZ-Bake oven serving lightbulb-cooked concoctions to my apprehensive mother. Before the EZ-bake my sisters and I would resort to imaginary meals made with plastic food that Velcro-ed together. I can remember squishing my hands in fresh oatmeal raisin cookie dough at my grandmother's house, dolloping the dough in fist-sized balls on greased cookie sheets. Every holiday was filled with cookies and cakes and pies of all kinds. To this day we still bake a lot of the things I grew up with like cream cheese pumpkin rolls and frosted sugar cookies. My friends love my baking, especially my chocolate fudge. Again I love experimenting, tweaking tried and true recipes by adding nuts or different extracts. And I recently got a job at a cupcake shop that just opened in my town which I am so excited to start!

I'm vegetarian, and would love to try vegan baking although as one poster said it looks pretty intimidating! Hopefully having a vegan cookbook can quell these apprehensive thoughts :)

At age 18, I am able to cook a handful of things really well, because I started cooking for myself at a young age. Although I can cook those things really well, I can't cook much else. I still burn pasta if I don't break it in half, or push it in to the boiling water fast enough, and I seem to mess up any complicated recipe I try. I can cook and bake enough to fake it in front of new people, though, and I must say that I make a mean vegan shepard's pie and seitan pot roast. For baking, I'm best with cupcakes. I like to decorate them like little puppies and give them to my loved ones.

I love to cook but sometimes its hard to find something my 4 kids like.

When I was 18, I was not yet a vegetarian. I learned to cook from my mother. I am the oldest of 4 children and I'm the only girl. So pretty much I was like the second mother. I enjoyed cooking for our family pretty regularly. And it was helpful to my mom to get a break from cooking. I grew up in the south, so I have fond memories of learning to cook red bean with fried potatoes and corn bread, and fried okra. Good fried foods!

At 18 I was a pretty good cook...in my imagination. I loved reading cookery books and imagining myself baking and cooking like a pro. In reality being the youngest in my family, with my mum and sister being excellent cooks...I had no space for myself in the kitchen. But I did manage to cook rice or dahl (after some disasters) when no one was around. Now...years later I am a pretty decent cook with lots of enthusiasm and a great interest in healthy food. I am a vegetarian at present who imagines she will one day go vegan! : )

At 18, I was a third shift waitress at a Waffle House in rural Arkansas. Yes, it was exactly how you are picturing it. I was fascinated by the skills of our (super hot) short order cook. So, between make out sessions in the back he taught me a thing or two about hashbrowns and fried eggs. I grew up on ramen noodles and mac and cheese so this was a big step for me. These days, I'm a vegan with a mean baking streak and much more concious of my impact on the earth. But, my cooking confidence started in that grease pit so I will always remember it fondly.

im trying the whole baking thing, lol only my pancakes turn out good

When I was 18 I cooked LOTS! I started cokking with my mother and my two grandmothers, but little of our diet was vegetarian, let alone vegan. I became vegetarian 15 years ago. So despite my non-veggie beginnings, I now rule in the kitchen, and it is strictly vegetarian! I also have several vegan dishes that I make, but am always on the lookout for new recipes. I would love to win a copy of this new cook book and "play" with it in the kitchen!

I declared myself a vegetarian at 17, but subsisted mostly on salad, fruit, and peanut butter, due to my limited culinary skills. At 18, I took a winter term off from college and spent three months living on a self-sustained commune in VA where food was a sacred part of life. I learned to grow vegetables, milk cows and goats, make butter, cheese and even home-baked bread. The kitchen was huge, the grains were in bulk and every day was a gustatory adventure. It really helped to lay the foundation for the way I cook and eat today.

I am a new vegan and a poor baker (and cook) but for my best friend's birthday I made Vegan chocolate raspberry cake and vegan vanilla frosting (and I made it blue!) I was very proud of myself, however my non-vegan friends laughed quite a bit when the thin frosting began running off the cake and attacking my friend's refrigerator and after the first piece was cut the cake collapsed a bit. I still think it tasted great! Hey, I tried, but I could use some help! I think it is amazing that vegan baking is becoming more well known, that more and more cookbooks are coming out and that I know of two bakeries that will make Vegan Wedding Cakes! Its really exciting!

both of my parent's were culinary arts professors johnson and wales i really enjoy cooking

At age 18, I was married and determined to always have a meal on the table every day for my husband, who was abusive. I was working two jobs, one full-time and one part-time, and had not become vegetarian yet, but thought about it often. My meals consisted of a lot of hamburger helper, of stir fry, of chicken and rice, and I was quite adept at making cookies, cake (or cupcakes), and pretty much anything that you gave me to make.

As long as I had the recipe, and the ingredients, I could (and can still) make it. I would make it attentively and not leave to multi-task on items (which is the biggest reason, in my opinion, why people don't believe they're good cooks...they don't constantly watch the consistency of their food.).

I could make a soufflé, green chile chicken cheese enchilada casseroles, southwestern tortilla soup and a vegetable soup from scratch.

It wasn't until June of 2006 that I became a Pesco vegetarian, and then in December, fully made the switch to Lacto-ovo vegetarianism. Today, as a Lacto-ovo vegetarian, I eat any and all fruits and vegetables and will cook with all ingredients, as long as they are not animal based. My eggs I make sure are cage free, and if I do drink or use milk in my cooking, I use organic skim milk.

It's easy to find replacements...even chicken and beef broth can be replaced by vegetable broth and taste just as delicious.

Now, if someone asks me to even cook for them with meat...I just refuse as that's part of my ethical belief system. The cramped conditions of the animals, the sickness, the hormones/chemicals/antibiotics they're pumped with just to stay alive and their overall inhumane and indifferent treatment of them by those in the industry is not something any living, thinking with a nervous system and bleeding organism deserves to go through (including insects, which can be considered "meat").

What I don't get is why at Texas Woman's University here (I live in the dorms as a Senior Biology/Ecology major), the chefs consistently make what they call "vegetable soup", and then make it with beef or chicken broth! It's not vegetarian at that point. It entirely defeats the purpose. Also, they'll make Ambrosia (lovely fruit, nut and whipcream combination) with marshmellows. This fruit mixture (which is the only fruit mix they have) is now not edible by vegetarians, unless they order it and just pick out the marshmallows...but the whole point is to not support using/throwing away/or buying marshmallows, as it will lead to further demand.

And there is no such thing as vegetarian gelatin: only agar-agar, carageenan or guar gum have been found recently as suitable "jelling/fluffing" alternatives.

So, from the age of 18, to my cooking habits today? I think today is a lot easier in some ways (especially when eating raw), and more difficult to find uncontaminated sources, in others. For a quick meal on the go, I recommend the Boca brand, Morningstar farms, Veggie Patch, Worthington Foods, Veggie tamales and pretty much any food at Whole Foods Market whose label is high fructose corn syrup free, preservative free, partially hydrogenated oil or trans fat free, gluten-free (as that's like a paste in the colon), and which does not contain meat or dairy products in it.

Karen

When I was 18 I only made baked goods that came in a box. Now that I'm a few years older I love cooking goodies from scratch! Everything tastes so much better, and I feel better now that I know what I'm eating.

Hi I am 18. the only thing I am good at right now is my vegan bread. I make it from scratch.

At the age of 18 my cooking skills were pretty minor especially with an awesome Asian cook like my Mom. I would be able to help saute the veg or open cans but that's about it. Now that I'm on my own, I've been able to broaden my horizons. I've dabbled in vegetarian, vegan and raw cooking.

I've had difficulty baking with these alternative styles as baking usually involves formulas and precise measurements otherwise your food won't taste proper. I appreciate the difficult in making a vegan dessert book on your own no matter what age you are.

My vegan baking has become like a challenging science project!
I now live where the elevation is a problem, so every baking attempt is an experiment. The ingredients are difficult to locate here, but that just makes the challenge and the end result more worthwhile.
So far its even been fun to eat even the failures!

I love to bake. I love sweets. I can't wait to win or purchase your cookbook to make my baking healthier and tastier.

Hey there, right now I am just vegetarian, working towards vegan. My husband is concerned about me getting what I need nutritionally so I am absorbing information where I can, and could deffinately use a good cookbook!

When I was 18, which wasn't long ago, I knew quite a lot about cooking. I could make homemade soymilk from scratch and by hand, homemade dry cereal, bread, you name it, I made it. I had to learn how to cook when I went vegetarian...at the age of 8; from then on I was responsible for cooking my own meals and feeding myself (of course my parents provided me with the cooking materials and food). However, learning out of necessity blossomed into learning out of passion and when I was 18 I was taking even more leaps, making my own recipes like trying to make a vegan souflee that would actually rise. I am still an adventerous cook.

Hi. I'm from Brazil, and I have 25 years (sorry if my english comes wrong...). I'm a Vegan for 6 months now...I decided for this lifestyle and I feel that I take the right decision.
Isn't easy on the beggining, because I had to change alot of things, but now a days, it's essencial for me. I know about PETA since 1998, and this help me to decided about became vegan...
I can't see myself eating meat again...
PETA is a very important organization, and I'll support always their fight against the animal kill.
Again, sorry my english.
PETA, thanks for changing so many lifes...including mine :)

I've been vegetarian for a little over a year and have lost 40 pounds in that amount of time--effortlessly! Thanks for the great "sweets" cookbook!

when 18... I was already vegan and my skills were quite the as today. I was able to cook deliciuos treats, as cakes, pies, jams, etc.. everybody would love them. but when it comes to meals such as stews... I think they r ok, but only vegetarian people really like them, "the others" say that it is good but lacks flavour. until today I haven´t fully reach the goal of making deliciuos vegan food to persuade people to give up on meat. but i'm still trying hard ;)