I am an Air Force wife who has the priviledge of living all over the place. Most recently we lived in Northern Italy and I had such a great time learning to cook Italian. It has greatly influenced my current cooking because I have gone back to using fresh ingredients rather than frozen or canned whereever possible. It means I shop a little more often but the quality and the taste is so fantastic it is worth the trouble to me. My husband and I are both good cooks but I think we are being eclipsed by our youngest son who has decided he wants to be a chef. We are loving eating the practice!! I really like to do parties with really different selections of appetizers presented really well. I also love to cook soups and stews. I am not sure we will have the weather for it here in Florida!! My Mom and Dad are both awesome cooks. My Dad makes outstanding pies particularly Pecan and Sweet Potato. He also traditionally makes fruit cake every Thanksgiving to be shipped out for Christmas. They have become so popular he ships out 40 - 50 a year. My favorite thing Mom does is enchiladas, from an old recipe, from a friend from New Mexico. They are great! She also is a cookie queen sending them all over the world, wherever her grandkids are. Well my greatest cooking triump came out of tragedy. I went with my Florida church to do hurricane relif work in MS. As an RN I expected to do that kind of work but what was needed was a cook for the relief workers. I started out on a propane stove cooking for 14 and ended a month later cooking on 3 burners for 250. I did 3 meals and 2 snacks a day. I made peach pancakes with homemade peach syrup, bread pudding with lemon sauce, chicken divan, shepards pie, and sandwhiches with all kinds of salads for lunch. Although I did go home between weeks one and two and grab my recipe book tons of spices and a big skillet I really just relied on 30 years of cooking experience and the Grace of God to work from 4:30 Am to 10:00 PM for a month. I knew it was a triumph when one of the young guys with us asked if I would teach his wife to cook!!