I've been cooking since I was REALLY little, but now, being a college student and away from home, you're pretty much either stuck with fast food, or forced to teach yourself to cook. Since I have a kitchen and no spare money (my parents actually do my shopping for me) I have chosen to learn how to cook! And wow, I'm getting pretty good. I used to follow the recipe to a T, but I've come to a point where I can tweak things or make something entirely my own. It just took some time. ;) Pasta, Alfredo sauce, Spaghetti and meaty sauce, chicken stir fry, hamburgers, homemade beefaroni, chicken bacon and swiss sandwiches, all kinds of cookies (especially sugar cookies), homemade mac'n'cheese, pies, bread, a family dinner called "Mooshplapla" (we made it up), a breakfast fry that I call "My Breakfast Medley", aaaaand... I'm still working on learning more. All the major holidays have a "______ dinner" that we have every year. So far the only one I've helped with was Thanksgiving. I help make Christmas cookies, as well. Sometimes my mom and I just randomly cook if we have the stuff to do so. 75% of the things I make are edible and delicious. All the really old in-family recipes are the ones that ALWAYS work for me--and I can still expand on them! My first attempt at brownies, my second attempt at Pizzelles, a ground beef fry with rice that... just... died... and sometimes my cookies don't turn out--but that's what you get for using recipes from a cookbook you've never used before ("Where's Mom Now That I Need Her?")