I'm married (29 years) to a wonderful guy who will eat most anything I put before him-and sometimes there've been some pretty odd meals! Nothing makes me feel better than putting a nice dinner on the table when he comes home from work, or to have a hot breakfast on the table before everyone takes off to work or school; to me, cooking says "love" like nothing else. We have four kids-two grown boys, another just about there, and a young teen daughter. Two gerbils, two cats, and several fish complete the picture. We enjoy hiking, ATV-ing, cabin-camping and the outdoors in general. I've had to learn how to cook largely on my own, an interesting journey I must say! From the very beginning I'd determined to learn how to cook like my mother-in-law, who was (and still is, even at 92) so loving and helpful in helping a young bride find her culinary feet. Breakfast, especially for the Christmas and Easter holidays! I've had to develop my own as well as take on some of my mother-in-law's since my family was never into cooking. I absolutely adore cooking and baking for the holidays and am so grateful to Mom for her generosity and help when I first "took over" the very pleasant duties of hostess at these times. My greatest successes are humble dishes but everyone loves them. Fried rice, meltaway cookies, a raspberry sorbet, Swiss steak, rib roast, and of all things, biscuits. They turn out very well even at this high altitude! My husband's brother and family came up to Colorado for a visit. I'd prepared a crockpot of spaghetti sauce which turned out great. HOWEVER...when I went to cook the spaghetti I discovered I hadn't used a large enough pot-so it all stuck together in a horrible, huge, hard mass. Eventually, with Mom's help, we managed to rescue it. Would you believe I darn near did the same thing when they came again some years later! :P The absolute worst was when I cooked (?) a leg of lamb my grandmother had brought over. I decided to microwave it in my new microwave oven-there were directions for a roast leg of lamb, after all! BIG mistake-it wasn't exactly ruined but it was not what she (or I) had in mind, either...I haven't had the nerve to try it even in the conventional manner since.