I actually find cooking to be tedious, but for special occassions I find it to be an interesting project to start and finish. I also like a successfull end result that I can be proud to show off. For myself, however, the microwave is the only way to go. My mother has always hosted Thanksgiving for the extended family (20-30 people). Back in the day it used to take SEVERAL hours to bake a 25 pound turkey (we've always made 2 at a time) so we'd have to stay up late the night before prepping the bird and stuffing, and then get up early in the morning to get the birds in the ovens. With that little amount of sleep, we'd get a little giddy... We always named the birds after my and my brother's latest ex, and often danced the birds around the kitchen before stuffing. Those were really great times. Of course now-a-days we're both married, and with the oven bags of present days, it only takes 2 hours to bake a large turkey, so there's no ceremonial baking of ex-flames at 6am on Thanksgiving morning. The first time I ever cooked for the man I eventually married, I made a very tasty baked chicken casserole in a glass dish. When it came time to transfer the chicken from the dish to the plates, I wanted it to look perfect and not to over-disturb the topping so I lifted the dish up over my head to determine where the chicken was in the dish. In doing so, I hit the edge of the dish on the range-hood, flipping the dish mid-air and spilling chicken and stuffing all over the floor. He ended up scooping up what was salvagable off the stovetop, and that's what we had for dinner. Surprisingly, it took him 7 years to propose after that.