I'm 28 years old, married with a newborn son. I've recently quit my job and become a stay-at-home Mommy. My husband and I've been together for almost 5 years and married for the last 1-1/2 years. I rarely cooked until I met him and I am still learning. With the loss of my salary, we are having to cut back on our spending in a major way, so I now have to cook almost every night. I would really like to advance my skills and learn to make new dishes (I'm not very creative at making up recipes or modifying existing ones). Especially since I will be inheriting the responsibility to prepare a New Years Day dinner next year for my family and will have to cook for a large group of people...yikes!!! My husband and I both come from families who are big "meat & potato" eaters. I like making tradition meals, such as pot roast, or roast chicken and mashed potatoes. I myself also love rice and pasta dishes, but don't get to make them too often because my husband is not crazy about them. I believe that sitting down to a nice family dinner each night (without the TV being on at our house) is a great way to spend quality family time together and to communicate. This was very important to my parents growing up, and I plan to do the same with my family. I also enjoy getting together with my parents and my brother and his family for dinners, where my Mom & I have time together in the kitchen, preparing dinner. I recently made my first homemade pie (apple), using recipes for the crust and filling that I found on this website. It turned out really well and everyone really liked it...woo-hoo! The first time I made lasagna for my parents and my brother, I stopped at the store on the way to their house and bought all of the ingredients. I made the lasagna and all seemed well until my brother (who is very picky, especially when I'm cooking) took a couple of bites. He said it tasted funny and my Dad agreed. Come to find out, 1 pkg. of the cheeze I bought was clumpy and had mold in it. Neither my Mom nor I saw it when I put the lasagna together and I didn't notice it while eating as I always scrap off the top layer of cheese anyway (the moldy package was what I used for the top of the lasagna). It definitely wasn't my finest moment! To this day, my brother pretends to gag and pass out when I say I'm making lasagna! Oh, and the first time I tried to melt chocolate in the microwave it caught on fire. Oops!