I'm pretty new to the whole cooking thing as eggs, toast, overcooked meat, and possible flames were my "specialties" (if you will) up until recently. I hang out at the race track quite a bit and grew accustomed to the "delicacies" of hot dogs and bad pizza...so my standards dropped quite a bit over the years. Then I turned 180 degrees and started eating out a lot and enjoying nicer meals, but that's way too expensive...so now I'm trying to figure out how to make my own cooking taste as good (or better) than what I can get in the restaurant. I joined this site so I could learn some basics of cooking (what pairs well, timing, etc...) and also get some great ideas and insights on how to customize recipes. So far, so good! I haven't had too many success stories yet, but I'm getting pretty good with baked or sauteed chicken as well as baked sole. Lots of Polish foods like pierogi, sausage, guampki and also our own take on the Sunday Chicken dish. Mom is also excellent with homemade chicken soup. Then when I visit the family in Nebraska, it's anyting and everything that can be fried, chicken fried, or deep fried. I did great with the Chicken Breasts with Balsamic Vinegar and Garlic recipe and also the Baked Garlic Parmesan chicken. Nothing more to mention.....yet. I guess I could count the time I accidentally got a top sirloin caught on fire, salvaged it, and it actually tasted excellent, as a triumph. Hey...no one wants to waste a good cut of meat. I tried to do a sauteed shrimp dish with a butter, garlic and wine sauce, and it tasted so bad I threw it out and got a pizza.