I have done basic cooking for years, but only in the last few years have I begun trying new recipes and experimenting. When I look for a recipe it takes me about an hour before I start cooking because I like to read through all the reviews and see what others have said and if they changed the recipe at all. My favorite things to cook have always been cookies, but now I'm finding out that I really enjoy baking bread and meals. I love making my family's favorite beef roast and gravy that I got out of the Home Cuisine magazine. Christmas cookies! From the time I can remember, my mother always baked cookies and made Peanut Butter Fudge at Christmas. The only free spot in the entire kitchen would be this one litte area of counter space where my mom's mixer was, other then that the table was full of cooling cookies, the counters were stacked to almost the ceiling with containers full of cookies. I don't know how she did it, I've tried, but I can never bake half the amount of cookies she always did and I don't think I'll ever be able to make her fudge. The first thing I ever tried to make from scratch from a recipe book, beef roast topped with a remulata (sp?) with red wine gravy. Became an istant family favorite and a meal that I cook for special occassions. Baking my first ever yeast bread. I found the recipe here and followed the step-by-step instructions and it came out perfectly and have been making it almost every day since. I haven't bought a loaf of store bought bread in a month. Trying to make my mom's Peanut Butter Fudge. She has never owned or used a candy thermometer, she always used the glass of cold water to tell when the mixture was cooked right, but no matter what I do, I even went out and bought a candy thermometer, but I can't get it to turn out right. It always crumbles and tastes like pure sugar or it's runny and never sets up.