I'm a Air Force wife, Mom to a 2 1/2 year old DD, and a high school teacher...so pretty much nothing scares me :o) We move a lot with the military and I collect recipes from everyone and everywhere we go. I love to bake...we have a ridiculous Christmas Cookie Tradition in my family. I love to try new things...I'm getting better at experimenting and modifying, but I usually start with some sort of recipe. I would like to be even more adventurous, but right now if my DD won't eat it I'm not fixing it. Every Christmas all the ladies of the family get together the fist week in December and bake for 3 days. We make hundreds of dozens of cookies (we made 14 different kinds last year), spiced nuts, and close to 20 lbs of fudge. NO...we don't eat it all. We usually ship it to friends and family and pass out to neighbors co-workers and friends. Everyone looks forward to our cookie baking weekend. As for the rest of the cooking...I come from a family of working mothers so the recipes that I learned to cook were easy and substantial (and usually economical). I still cook a lot of these meals, but I'm a little more adventurous...and I think it's starting to rub off on my mom and aunt :o) I can make gravy...for some people (especially Southerners) this may not seem like an accomplishment, but for me it is. I can do it from scratch...flour, butter, the works...and no lumps. I really felt like I could say, "I'm a good cook" when I mastered this. Tomatillos...I tried a recipe for a version of sloppy joes using Tomatillos instead of tomatoes...it was awful. The house reeked for 3 days and no one wanted to finish their dinner...not even me.