I didn't really start to get into cooking until I moved away from home, I cooked before, but never enjoyed it so much. Now I have a massive home made cook book that I'm always collecting and adding new recipes to. I used a photo album and just slide the cards in, if I take a picture of the finished product I tape it in next to where the recipe is. Baked goods. Cookies, cakes, pies, anything new or interesting. I like to cook meals too though :) And I get into the mood for experimenting sometimes, where I start throwing things into recipes (which scares some people, lol), but I've had pretty good success with making some yummy dishes. Growing up I wasn't as interested in cooking, so during most of the cooking I would kind of hover in the kitchen and watch. Every now and then whoever I was watching (my mom or one of my grandmothers usually) would ask me to grab butter, milk, salt, whatever for them. While this isn't really a "cooking tradition" it's my favorite cooking memories from growing up. Making fortune cookies from scratch. You definitely want to follow the advice about getting thin cotton gloves...my fingers were pretty well done by the time I made half a dozen of these. They came out beautiful and delicious, but they definitely are a "practice makes perfect" kind of recipe. Pudding from scratch...oh I'll probably never make that again. The recipe never said anything about the milk bubbling up like that, lol. I had a whole stove to clean and a really gross mess in the pot after that. I think there's a reason instant pudding is so tasty and cheap.