I love to cook and I love Allrecipes.com. I am a fulltime nurse in the operating room and am on call two weeks out of the month. I live with my husband, Tim and our 21 year old son, Luke. Our 27 year old daughter, Aimee ,is married and lives out of state. When I married 28 years, I thought I could cook, but Tim told me otherwise. For my mother, cooking was a chore, something to get done as quickly as possible, but for his mother, cooking was serious and something to take pride in. She is from South Louisiana and taught me to use spices liberally and to cook slowly. My younger sister has travelled extensively and lived abroad, so she has a very refined palate. When she moved home, she taught me to enjoy gourmet food and use fresh herbs, and I taught her how to cook southern food. She is now in culinary school and is a wonderful cook. It is very flattering that she considers me to be the better cook. Soups and stews in the fall and winter. I am especially drawn to foods which have a gourmet/comfort feel to them. I love baking- especially cakes, but I got too fat and had to cut back on that! I want to learn how to cook more "summer foods" Because I work so much, but love to cook and eat well, I take full advantage of Allrecipes. com. On payday, I look over my recipe box and decide what I want to cook for that week. I send those recipes to the shopping list- print- add any other staples Im short on and make quick work of grocery shopping! That evening and weekend, I cook, cut, shred, freeze and refrigerate everything that I can, so that in the evenings after work, all I have to do is put together and cook/reheat meals that I love and am proud to serve my family. My favorite cooking tradition is my mother-in-laws' famous Seafood Gumbo. She cooks it everytime the family gets together, and it just wouldnt be right if she didnt. She also makes awesome chicken dumplings. My mother, who is not the greatest cook, does have a good Chicken Cornbread Dressing which my daughter recently requested the recipe for, as well as a sweet potato casserole. My sister and I are creating our own cooking traditions, and I love sharing recipes with my daughter, Aimee. Allreipes makes it easy: I just email them to her and their is a place to enter any changes that I have made. My ultimate cooking goal is for Tim to learn to cook so that we can prepare meals together. He is beginning to help me somewhat in the kitchen. When I find him looking up recipes on Allrecipes to share with me, my goal will have been fulfilled!! When I cooked my first seafood gumbo with my mother-in-laws recipe, and it tasted just like hers! I am so proud to have that recipe, and when she is long gone, her gumbo will still be enjoyed by her family. The first breakfast that I cooked for my husband, and he wouldnt even eat it. Im glad that I cared, and eventually learned how to cook. If someone presented that first breakfast to me today, I would probably do just as he did.