I've been cooking for about as long as I've been able to walk (and trust me, that's a looooonnnnngggg time! I taught cooking to middle school students for 12 years before having my children, and believe that if I can teach middle school drama queens to cook . . . I can teach anyone to cook. As Gaston would say "anyone can cook". I will try almost anything (I pass by the recipes with too long of an ingredient list and/or ingredients that I will NEVER find in my little town) but my most favorite thing to cook are the foods that make my family happy. I like sharing traditional menus with my children. My family has certain recipes we use at certain times of year that are passed down generation to generation. I have all of my grandmother's cookbooks and occasionally my girls and myself will dust one of them off and make something she made in the 30s. Any meal that my daughters request over and over again is a triumph. I once made a peanut brittle in high school that was so difficult to break apart the knife went into the palm of my hand and I had to have stitches. That would be the worst, I think. I haven't made peanut brittle since.