I have been cooking for about 35 years and getting more creative all the time. I love to take a basic recipe and "doctor" it. I live by myself with my 2 cats and have two grown sons one of whom is married and the younger about to be married. I love to have them over so I have an "excuse" to cook. I like to read cook books just for fun! Casseroles are my speciality. I like them because you always get a good mix of flavors and most importantly, there are leftovers! Also, like to get creative with salads - I put just about anything in them - especially good are left over cold veggies. I also love to have little parties and rather than having a formal sit down I like to have a bunch of appetizers, hot and cold so people can eat and mingle at the same time. I have a favoroite spinach artichoke dish which I add bacon to which gives it some extra flavor and everyone loves it! When the kids were little their favorite thing on Saturday morning was pancakes. I used "Bisquick" but added a little lemon juice to boost the taste. Also, chicken tetrazinni served with everyone's favorite salad which consists of romaine lettuce, green onions, toasted slivered almonds, mandarin orange sections and blue cheese with a good caesar dressing. Favorite dessert is lemon squares. Also, family recipe for chocolate sauce served over peppermint or coffee ice cream - yum! Probably the first time I overcame my fear of cooking a whole turkey and was so excited when it came out nice and brown and juicy the first time! I remember having an egg explde in the microwave when I was first using one - that was a mess! Also, I mistook a jar of used cooking oil (it had a golden color) for a jar of maple syrup and put it on the kid's pancakes - they kept complaining that it wasn't sweet enough so I kept pouring it on and finally I tasted it and discovered my mistake! Needless to say, we were all grossed out! Also, when making grilled ham and cheese or any kind of grilled sandwich, cook on low because they burn very quickly and also the cheese melts better when cooked on low.