Married to a master chef for +30 years has not had the learning benefits one might hope! All my expertise(?) comes from my grandmother and the mother of a family I babysat in the late 60's. I may not be a fantastic cook, but I do know how to save money in that area! One pot meals - Crock pot,roaster, clay baker, slow cooker. Anything that I don't have to do a lot of 'fiddling' with. Christmas Dinner - Always Dec. 25th no matter what! Same menu as my great-grandmother, but sometimes an added fancier dessert: Roast Turkey with bread stuffing & gravy, mashed potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, ggm's recipe for Fruit Cake, pumpkin pie, apple pie. My daughter's wedding cake. Although not a baking triumph - it was just my great-grandmother's fruit cake recipe - the triumph was that everyone was amazed that I made the cake for the wedding! (Decorated by a professional of course before the big day.) Never a non-edible one, just one not to be repeated: oatmeal cookies in which I used granola for the oatmeal and apple sauce for the shortening - too chewy and moist. I'll stick to the original recipe only replacing the oatmeal with granola - delish!