"June Cleaver without the pearls." Enjoy collecting cookbooks from my favorite era--the 1950s. Learned to cook by helping my mom--everything from macaroni and cheese to cappelletti (which took us all day and we never made again). My mom introduced me to ethnic foods and never put a disappointing meal on the table. To honor her precious memory I took her name as my user name: Katycooks1. I look for recipes with ingredients I have on hand. Really lean towards "from scratch" cooking and, as I get older, for more simple dishes. We always had a corned beef for St. Patrick's day and a turkey for Thanksgiving. These days the corned beef may end up in sandwiches and only a turkey breast prepared--but I still have everything to go with it (oyster stuffing an absolute must). And because we had such fun eating fondue, I prepare that and bake a cake on December 24th, my mom's birthday. The greatest joy of my life was trying out a new recipe and having my husband, Rich, love it and request it again. As a newleywed I invited my parents over for Round Steak in Rich Gravy. After 8 hours in the Crockpot I lifted the lid-it looked exactly like it did when I put it in because I'd forgotten to plug the Crockpot in! My husband teased me about that for 30 years.