I'm currently taking the Food Handlers Safety course from this site in order to work in my church's new commercial kitchen. I have learned so much from it and think that it would be a great help to anyone cooking for others, whether it be for family or for customers. The site is...

http://www.onlineinstituteofamerica.com/

It is only $15.00 Well worth it when it comes to understanding food safety issues.

I don't want to start a debate at all, but I noticed that you're in SoCal. I'm also in SoCal (Los Angeles county) and have recently found out that it is now illegal to share any commercial kitchen. The only way to sell cakes professionally is by having your own business. It could vary from county to county, but I just thought I'd put a little more information out there for you.

Here is a thread I started about this:

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=654598&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=0

Again, not starting a debate.

Oh dear, I guess I wasn't clear in my post. I'm not sharing or using the kitchen to bake in. I'm going to be overseeing the use of it during the day (since I'm not working) and had to take this course in order to be up to speed. I only suggested it here as a means of keeping current with proper food handling techniques and practices. It never hurts to brush up on this and after taking it, it makes one very, very aware of dangerous practices. That's all. No breaking of the law here!

I think food handling could be beneficial to anyone, not just someone working in a bakery or such. I've never taken one, but I bet we'd all be surprised by things we practice at home that could be unsafe for our families.

thank you for sharing

Thanks for the tip! It also looks like their ServSafe prep class is cheaper than the one offered by my local college, so that's neat too.