Well, I'm 22 years old and was thrown in a kitchen about two years ago when I married my husband. He can't/won't cook so I had to step up to the plate. McDonalds gets real old after a while. I've gotten much better and continue to learn how to cook new things. The only thing I haven't really had much experience with is veggies since my husband won't eat them (except mashed potatoes). I currently own two cats, Trouble and Evy. Trouble is a HUGE 20 lb cat that was mistreated by his previous owner and is now the biggest cuddle kitty. Evy I got as a kitten and to this day I haven't seen a cuter kitten. They're both 3 years old and love to irritate each other and my husband. Well, I don't really get to cook anything that I like. I'm normally watching what I cook because my husband is super picky. He refuses to eat fruits and veggies so that cuts out a lot of options. So far I really don't have any. Being that my husband is in the military there are a lot of guys that miss home cooked meals. I think the closest thing to a tradition right now would be to try and make their favorite meals. They can request anything they want - I try and make it to the best of my ability. So far things have turned out very well. There are two big triumphs I've had since really diving into cooking. 1.) The first time I made pie crust. I wanted to make a pumpkin pie because it sounded good. I called my mom and asked for her recipe. She told me that I should buy a pie crust just in case. She went on and on about how I shouldn't be too upset if it doesn't come out right. HAH! Perfect pie crusts every time. I even made my pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving dinner and it was considered better than this women's pie (her pie was considered the end-all and be-all of pumpkin pies). 2.) The first, and so far only, time I've roasted a turkey. I called my mother and father for tips because I knew that it was supposed to be hard. I ended up scraping all their tips and went with information found on this site. I brined my turkey the night before and it was the most succulent turkey I've ever had. All my other guests agreed. The closest thing I had to a "tragedy" was when I was making Christmas dinner for the first time. There was going to be a total of 6-10 guests and there had been requests made for certain things. I started two days in advance prepping all the food (and cleaning the house). I was a wreck. I've decided I need a double oven. I made: a 10 lb. turkey, a 8 lb. ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, spinach dip, 3 pumpkin pies, and watergate salad. The stuffing was pretty bad, the gravy was okay (I had thrown out the neck and saved it by accidentally having a jar of turkey gravy in the back of my cabinet), and the ham was a little dry because I tried cooking it in a too-small crock pot. But, since there was so much food it really didn't seem so bad.