I've been cooking almost daily since 1964 and have learned most of what I know on the subject by reading recipes and trying them. My mother taught me how to make biscuits, cornbread and pie crust. My husband is easy to please, and by now, 26 years into the marriage, I know what he will and will not eat. Jerry loves anything that ends with ESE,such as Chinese; also Mexican and Italian. We live in a very small town but have several really good restaurants, and we do like to eat out (average once a week). I love to try out duplicating the taste, if not the exact ingredients, in dishes we order. Beyond cooking, I "compute" a lot (can you tell) and spend a lot of time pampering my "baby," a 4 year old min. poodle named Abby. I came late to being a dog person, I'd always been a catlover, and still am, but a puppy is more like a baby than a kitten. Oh, bother! Sorry. I used to try any and all recipes that appealed to me, now I try to limit the time it takes me to prepare and cook a meal because I feel like I was becoming "obsessed" with food. I still try new recipes, but they have to be healthier than they used to be--I may be 65 years old, but I don't want to look it OR feel it! But I do plan meals ahead. Monday's we have Beans, potatoes, cabbage (or turnip greens) and cornbread OR some kind of pasta dish (I'm "famous" for my spaghetti, and my chili con carne.)I also make the "best cheesecake I ever tasted"-not me, that's what everybody else says. Not my favorite, I'm a pie person myself. Favorite Pie is PECAN! I love it!!!I recently started trying to bake layer cakes, but am still just trying. I have to bake the layers late in the day, I get too impatient to frost a cake before it's completely cool. I did that once and of course the layers slid off! I held them in place with long skewers, but it was still a mess. A tasty mess, but a mess, no less When my mother was alive, she would always ask me to make a big batch of my "famous" spaghetti sauce for her freezer when I visited her. What a compliment, she made the very first spaghetti I ever ate! This is a favorite memory of her. THE CHEESECAKES EVERYBODY LOVES SO MUCH. Also the spaghetti mentioned above and another favorite of mine, MEATLOAF. I love potatoes, they are very versatile. There must be something wrong with my oven. The last two pound cakes I've made have not turned out AT ALL. Still raw on the inside when cooking time was up. And, still raw 40 MINUTES LATER. I poured it out, into another dish, an 8 inch square casserole dish, and baked it again (more than an hour)and we were then able to eat it. And it was very good, even though it was still a little "doughy" in the very middle of the "cake." KRAZY! Stove is too new to be going bad, but I am very good at this cooking and baking thing....so I just can't think it's ME!