I never cooked a day in my life, until my mid-30's. Then noticed that we were spending WAY too much time in restaurants, and with 4 kids we were spending too much money on 'quick meals' at the grocery store. Our diet was horrible. I decided something had to change! I always thought I hated to cook, but actually, I'd just been WAAAAYYYY too intimidated to try it. I started surfing the web, found this site, and just started pulling recipes off that sounded good. It has taken a while, but I'm finally comfortable in the kitchen, though I'm no pro, and I love experimenting and trying new things. I've even started tweaking some recipes to fit my family's particular tastes! That's a big step for me! And my kids LOVE to help, and watch, and try all of the stuff that I now make! We are healthier now and eating better and just have a better relationship with food and the kitchen. And the time we spend together, planning and cooking, is the best part. I like to make main courses, work with meats and fish. I really don't like baking much. I REALLY hate working with dough! We are just starting to make our family traditions. I make the main meals, the kids like to make desserts and fun stuff, which I just supervise on. It's acutally a lot of fun, and the kids get such a kick out of it. Learning how! Cooking can be very intimidating if you don't grow up around it. I was scared to death of ruining a meal. I didn't know what most of the terms meant, it was like learning a new language. You have to just jump in and DO it. There is so much information on the internet, there is no reason you can't find what you're looking for, or an explanation of how to do something. I have tried some very complicated recipes and altho they don't alwalys turn out perfectly, I always learn something along the way. I've also learned to eat healthier which is somehting I desperately want to pass on to my kids. And very importantly, I've learned how to plan ahead so that we don't have to resort to 'fast food' even on our busiest days! Crock pots are lifesavers!!! I invited some friends over for a big fancy meal, I guess I thought I'd show off my new talent. Anyway, this was before I'd really gotten timing down, and some stuff was done way too early, and other stuff took a lot longer than I thought and . . .well, it was a mess and by the time everything was ready half of the meal was stone cold and everybody was just starving. . .planning is key!