I've been teaching myself to cook for 20 years now. I love it! I watch cooking shows, collect cookbooks and search all of the good food websites routinely. I try new wines all the time. I love to pair wine with food. I just started putting together all of my best my recipes for my 10 year old daughter - although I don't know what she will do with them - she is a very picky eater! I love to cook just about everything - soups, stews, chili, stir fry, ethnic. I love to roast food in the oven. I'm not big on deep frying. I love the crock pot. I love preparing appetizers, salads and veggies. The last 3 or 4 years I finally started baking. I love it - I don't know what took me so long? I don't have any traditions yet. I'm starting them now! I can make soup out of anything and everything in the pantry. Quite often I begin a recipe and realize in mid-preparation that I ran out of an ingredient. This happens all too frequently. You would think I would learn to check first!!!