If you are interested in cooking your own roms, I'd suggest looking at OMJ's kitchen. He has put out a very easy to use kitchen with some very useful templates that are easily tweaked.
http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=97388
He is also very responsive to questions and suggestions. I'm very new to cooking myself, and I've had (IMHO) great success making a lightweight titanium rom that I load SPB's mobile shell on top of, and then further customize by include various cabs for different versions that my wife and I both run. Good Luck.