Look for me with our 4 kids, 4 cats, 1 dog, and one tired hubby, carrying a box of paints and a box of charcoal and some paper. usually running to the kitchen to whip something up for dinner, unless our schedule is slow, at which time i enjoy pulling out all the stops - chopping and whipping up a frenzy! At the moment my favorite things would have to be dips and spreads that make the simplest foods & meals seem fancy! For our family we mark seasonal & holiday happenings with colorful meals. For the first snow (that sticks to the ground) we enjoy a "white" meal - one example might be a plate with some creative cooking of chicken, rice, and cauliflower. On the first day of Spring we enjoy pastels - even the mashed potatoes are colored pink. We do this for other special dates as well (friends look askance at the green milk on St. Patty's day). Simple but special - the traditional recipe for Forty Cloves of Garlic. Boy was I surprised at how great this recipe was! Simple - and the garlic was sweet not overpowering! Also, another favorite (but expensive, so its for a special treat) that looks like a triumph but is easy was learning to make a Crown Roast. However I would have to say that my biggest triumph of all has been learning to make a full meal when the cupboard is bare! I knew that my kitchen tragedies were not so unnoticable when my oldest daughter, in second grade at the time, wrote and illustrated a booklet about our family's holiday traditions. Included in the book was a page showing smoke coming from the turkey in the oven, and the poem she wrote told how I burned myself as I cooked! That poem and illustration is now a treasured heirloom (that I keep hidden away!).