Growing up as a child, I used to spend a lot of time in the kitchen helping my mother. She cooked everything you could imagine. She canned many of the fruits and vegetables that she used and gave me an appreciation for frugal cooking. Leftovers was just another way of saying "dinner is already halfway done". There are a lot of things that I like to cook. I like stir-frying because it's easy, healthy, and inexpensive. We never get tired of it. I like to cook chili and big pots of beans and 'stuff'. When I start, I never know how it's going to end up, but it's always good. I enjoy using my smoker to smoke chickens and turkeys. When we're done with the bird, I continue to use it to make a big pot of the best chicken/turkey noodle soup you've ever eaten. Don't know about family cooking traditions. Stay out of my kitchen! I've had a few triumphs. My first triumph that I can remember was when I was 18. Newly married, didn't have 2 pots to bang together, and we were going to her family's Thanksgiving dinner... Using a large Halloween pumpkin, I made a pumpkin pie from scratch. I even made the pie crust with a braided edge. The kitchen was a disaster, just like something you might expect to see in a movie. Everyone raved about the pie. Many of my triumphs are probably considered triumphs because I managed to rescue them from being tragedies. As I mentioned earlier, many of my would-be tragedies were salvaged and turned into triumphs. I can't really recall any real tragedies. I'll update this if it ever happens. :)