I just became a stay-at-home mom when I had my twins a year and a half ago. I can't believe I never took "Food" in school or anything because staying at home is what I do now and I didn't know anything about cooking when I started. (I probably needed to take some cleaning classes too!) Secretly, I want to go to culinary school. I'm obsessed with Top Chef too! :) I enjoy cooking when I feel like it and the monotony of having to cook everyday for my family gets old really quick. For those days, I love it when I can dump a bunch of junk into my slow cooker and it tastes just as great as a meal I've slaved over. Otherwise, I like to try more challenging dishes in the gourmet-ish direction so I can try to build up a great recipe box. I want my kids to think, "No one cooks better than my mom!" Also, I'm scared to death of frying things. Wow... my mom can't cook for cr*p so I really don't have any favorite cooking traditions. When I was little, we would go crabbing at our cottage on the Chesapeake bay and she would steam them and we would sit on the back porch cracking those bad boys all night. That was fun. I mean... I would say that I have more "eating triumphs" than "cooking triumphs"! The two dishes that my husband enjoys the mosts are comfort foods that my mom used to make us all the time (go figure). Teaching my husband how to make those dishes (so I don't have to) is probably my triumph! :) Holy ... I could write a novel. I try too hard sometimes without tasting along the way to learn how flavors go together and how to adjust foods to my palate. When I'm feeling creative, we tend to eat a lot of cereal.