I have been cooking since I was in high school. My mother and grandmother were good cooks and I have learned a great deal from both of them. My boyfriend and I love trying new recipes together, and he is a good cook as well, so that makes it much more enjoyable. My daughter is the baker in our family, and I am not, so we make a good team. Being from Texas, I enjoy Tex-Mex style cooking, and that influences my tastes quite often. Some of my favorites are King Ranch chicken, fajitas and enchiladas. I also love grilling and trying all kind of new marinades and rubs for steak, pork, seafood and chicken. I am an expert of sorts in foil packet cooking as well. When fall comes, I love cooking all kinds of things in my slow cooker. My daughter loves Asian cooking, so we have been experimenting with different dishes, one of our favorites is our version of minced chicken and lettuce wraps. For many years, my kids and I have always baked lots of different types of cookies at Christmas, never the traditional cutout decorated kinds though. We always make peanut butter blossoms, orange iced cookies, dipped shortbread and sandtarts. Easter and Christmas bring about gingerale and pineapple juice basted ham, corn casserole, mashed potatoes and green bean casserole, (I know some people will go eeeww, but my son loves it). My former father in law taught me how to get the baked ham just right and the first time I made it and it came out "stringy" and tender like his, it was a proud cooking moment for me. The next triumph would be when I was able to make pie crust just like my Nana's all by myself. When I was in high school I had to make a whole dinner for my family as part of home ec class. I made a chocolate sheet cake that ended up with a liquid center that never did cook for some reason. I was graded on the meal and didnt do so hot because the swiss steak was also way overcooked. I have since mastered both dishes.