My mom was a great chef. There was little room in her kitchen for error so I never learned how to cook until I was married. It's a good thing my husband is a tolerant man and doesn't mind sneaking a sandwich an hour after dinner. One of the early things I mastered in my cooking career was a teriyaki marinade. There's no set recipe...just the main ingredients to taste. The marinade goes well with steaks,ribs, fish and anything else. I've even dressed up tuna over rice when we were poor students on a very limited budget. Thanksgiving dinner has always been a favorite cooking tradition with everyone in our family and continues with the next generation. Everyone has their favorite food and picks it to make. We make Turkey goldened with soysauce, bacon-mashed potatoes from scratch, sweet rice with chinese sausage and BBQ pork, pork & beef tamales, and of course all different types of desserts.The blend of cultures bringing us together from all parts of California for that one weekend makes it truly a day of giving thanks for having a family to create a meal and share life with. When I first started dating my husband, I thought I would impress him with a cake. I couldn't bake of course; so,I bought a cake mix and tried my luck with the dorm oven. None of the girls on the floor had ever used the oven, so we didn't know if the oven worked or not. I mixed everything up, baked it, brought it out. Looked like it was a cake in a square. Took it over to my "boyfriend". He was nice and said thank-you. We didn't eat it. After a few days, I asked him how was the cake? He said he and his roommate tried to cut in to it, but there was this rubbery cylinder down the center! I guess it wasn't cooked all the way - or something happened to it along the way to his apartment. I never tried to impress him with my cooking or baking since. I leave the baking to him.