My husband and I have been retired for 6 years and since then I've become more and more creative in my cooking and baking and like to step out of my comfort zone. He actually likes anything I make but always makes a point of telling me "not too many spices please". We have 3 kids and 12 grandchildren and I love preparing for their visits and always try to make something new when they visit. I really enjoy cooking Italian & German meals and various soups. Tonight I'm preparing an African dish which is new to us...cumin, curry, apricots and beef-sounds yummy. I enjoy baking breads, cookies, cakes and cupcakes and anything chocolate. Our family is very traditional when it comes to the holidays. We always have turkey on Thanksgiving, roast beef for Christmas, steak and crab legs for New Years and Ham for Easter. We gather as a family (20 of us) after Christmas and then it is a sit down meal and is most often beef but each year I make different sides and desserts. My cooking triumphs would be the meals at our family Christmas gathering. My daughter-in-law is a wonderful cook and I always get a specific compliment from her about something that I've made. My other daughter-in-law likes the candy I make. The first cake I made for company was my biggest tragedy. We were newly married and I made a cake for dessert which had a caramel type topping. The directions said to make cuts in the topping before it set up. I did but not deep enough-I remember breaking my cake knife trying to cut through it. Bad recipe-just think if someone had tried to eat it! We had a good laugh.