Sue, a registered nurse, is known for trying new things. One of her most recent discoveries is the handheld milk frother. "Living in Seattle, I’m addicted to coffee and LOVE that I don’t need an expensive espresso machine to make lovely coffee drinks in my own home."

She's also known for making new dishes. "My husband and I work well together in the kitchen, and we love to try new recipes," she says.

Sometimes, however, they end up trying something new by sheer accident. "I had one pot of gravy on a burner on the stove and another pot of white chocolate-peppermint eggnog on the burner right beside it," she says. "My husband made himself a plate of leftover turkey and mashed potatoes and stuffing and poured gravy all over it … except it was the eggnog!!! His face was priceless!"

"My biggest accomplishment has been becoming a nurse in later years and raising my family," Marie says. Someday she'd like to have a career in the criminal justice field, working with nurses and medical problems.

In the world of cooking, however, she's had other accomplishments. Her family and friends enjoy her chocolate chip cookies and scratch biscuits. Marie adds, "My biggest kitchen success was baking and decorating my wedding cake."

Not everything that happens in the kitchen turns out successfully, however. Marie still recalls the time the safety seal on her pressure cooker blew and sent food flying all over the room!

Shalon is passionate about her job as a training specialist at a credit union, but she admits, "I would love to be a party planner! I love to have fun and plan events."

One event she dreams of planning is a private dinner for the judges from the Food Network's show "Chopped." She explains, "I would love to know what they think about my food!"

Not even Shalon, however, knows quite what to think about the Ethiopian food she once sampled. "To this day, I’m not quite sure what I ate, but I know I did it with my fingers and it was good!"

One thing she does know with certainty is the importance of good cooking tools. "My new favorite kitchen tool is my meat thermometer," she says. "Last Thanksgiving’s turkey was juicy and succulent because of it. I don't know how I've been cooking without it for all these years!"

Brenda is currently a yard supervisor and lunch server at her son's school, but her dream job is to be a professional chef. "I love the look on people's faces when they taste my food," she says. "It warms my heart."

Right now, Brenda gets raves for her pumpkin bars and her wine cake. In her opinion, though, her greatest culinary success has been making butternut squash risotto without a recipe.

And Brenda's favorite city for restaurants? Vancouver, British Columbia. "We went on a business trip," she reminisces, "and my daughter has wonderful memories of her 2-pound lobster and my cedar planked salmon."

Bud has a knack for whipping up something delicious from whatever’s available. He's adopted Rachael Ray's attitude, saying, "It’s okay to be a garbage cook, i.e., to open up the kitchen cabinet or pantry and put a meal together, which is what I'm known for and what my wife brags about."

He can also make do with whatever limited appliances are available. "When I worked at a weekly motel, I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for about 10 people on a kitchenette stove, and it came out on time and hot."

Even when Bud's on vacation, he likes to learn how cooks in different places use the ingredients in their region of the world. He searches the "tourist traps" for cookbooks on the local flavors and for specialty ingredients grown in that area.