I learned to cook from my maternal grandma-she's the best cook I've ever met. She's getting too old to cook, now. Arthritis prevents her from making her famous pies and crusts, and since my mom never had the patience for cooking, my grandma began passing her recipes on to me. When I was younger, I didn't have the patience, but I have my own house and my own family to cook for, and that makes it a lot funner. I love to cook pie. Its my absolute favorite thing. And its the only thing I'm REALLY good at when it comes to cooking. All my other stuff is so-so, but when it comes to pie, I'm a master. And every pie I make, it just gets better and better, all thanks to those hours my grammy spent trying to teach me to make pie crust-it finally came in handy, years later, and now, I've got the best crust in the family! My mom and my grandma and I always spend Christmas Eve and Thanksgiving Eve making a feast-pies, potatoes, stuffing, the works. This is the ONLY time my mom cooks, and its a great way to spend my holidays, and a great way to spend time with my maternal figures. Another thing I love is cooking with my dad. He doesn't really let me help, but he always lets me taste test! We were out of fruits and berries one day, but my boyfriend is addicted to pie. I wasn't really sure what to do until i started raiding the cupboards and freezer, and I made up this amazing pot pie from scratch-it was the first thing I ever made without a recipe, and it turned out AMAZING. Also, when I mastered pie crust. That was the best feeling EVER. The first few times I made pie, the crust was turning out okay tasting, but it looked hideous. It was bubbly and oozy and just gross looking, and it tasted kinda off, too. I couldn't figure it out for the longest time, and it was really disappointing-all those hours put into pies for nothing. And then I realized I just forgot the salt. When I added it, my boyfriend finally agreed that my grandma's recipe was unbeatable. And that was pretty awesome, because I like to feel like I'm following in my grandma's footsteps.