I have two daughters who are now 14 and 12. Ever since they could chew I've always asked them to "Just taste it, you might like it". I can honestly say they are not picky eaters. They eat everything from mussels in wine to succotash (something I don't even like). My husband was in the Navy for 20 years and retired 2 years ago. He now works for the government as a GS. We live in NJ but am trying to talk him to moving back to VA or possibly NC where it is a bit warmer and in my opinion more relaxing. I love to bake. I guess I get that from my Mom. She will be 80 this year and is an amazing woman not to mention a fantastic cook. She does most by memory but loves a new recipe every so often. She admires Paula Deen and gets alot of recipes from her show and books. She loves butter! When she comes to visit, I ask her to make my favorite recipes, for some reason they just taste better when she makes them as opposed to me making them. Maybe it's just good Ol' Fashioned Mamma Love or she's leaving a key ingredient out...hmmmm. I like to try new things also and this site gives me that opportunity. I have quite a few recipes in my recipe box. My Family back home in Illinois is quite big. One year at Thanksgiving, we decided to start a tradition of having Sailors from Great Lakes Naval Base who were in Boot Camp over for dinner. They were not able to go home but were able to be "adopted out" for the day to local families. We already have a large number of people to begin with but in the spitit of Thanksgiving we took the last 11 Sailor that were left. We had two vans and we brought them home. My brother-in-law had to build an additional table to accomodate us all. I think the total number ended up being around 35-40 people..with a few stragglers in and out. We kept that tradition for a few years until we moved. I suppose when you get married you are faced with the challenge of cooking. I just love cookbooks. I bought them, got them as gifts, even checked them out at the library. Pretty soon I had my own library. I think when you really love to cook, and enjoy it, people can taste that and it shows in your food. I've really had quite a few in my earlier years and not too many as I've matured. I've grown comfortable with my cooking style and I can honestly say that my tragedies are few and far between now. I don't really think I can pick one specific one since I've had too many to count when I started out as a young wife. But you learn to "fix" certain mistakes, divert huge tragedies and become an experience cook within your level of comfort. And all without going to Culinary School....whoohoo