I have always loved to cook, but minoring in Family and Consumer Sciences (aka - home ec.) enhanced that passion. It taught me correct techniques and methods for cooking. Two years ago I decided to try one new recipe a week and it has been wonderful to find great recipes on this site. During this process, I have also acquired quite the collection of cookbooks. My husband is my best critic and always compliments my efforts. I love to cook anything, but I am not a baker. I am intimidated by two things - any recipe that contains yeast (it always fails for me) and recipes with more than 15 ingredients (too much time). MY absolute favorite recipes are anything italian and mexican. Right now I am concentrating on making perfect entrees. I spent a lifetime in my mom's kitchen making side dishes - now I need to learn the rest. I look forward to three special cooking days in our family. Thanksgiving, of course, is one of those days. We cook all day at a very relaxed pace and enjoy the time together. My favorite Thanksgiving recipe is bread dressing (and I found a better one this year on this site). Christmas Eve we eat a dinner made solely of appetizers and hors d'oeuvres. This is a long-standing tradition we look forward to. And Christmas Day you can smell the ham cooking all day long and there's always leftovers from Christmas Eve. Wonderful times with the family! I feel like anytime I make something new, I have triumphed. I don't like to make or eat the same thing within a month. So this makes dinner time at our house fun. If it makes it to the table, it is a triumph. Any recipe tragedy I have had is baking oriented. My worst experience was my second time to make homemade bread by myself. We couldn't get a knife through the loaf when it was completed. I haven't made a loaf since. Since then, I have relied on the hot roll mix by Pillsbury to pass off as my "homemade" bread!