Most important to is family. Love to travel, then cook travel related dishes. Die hard Southern cook, husband was from Mass. but has crossed over to Southern style cooking, where's the gravey! Tradional Southern dishes. Many have been passed down throught the generations, on grandmother from the mountians of West Va. one from, Sanibel Island. From seafood to fried chicken, its the South at its best. At family reunions, we always have shrimp creole, from a old family recipe obtained from the chef of the man who owned the Tabasco Co. We also make Lane Cake a rich cake made with bourban soaked fruits and pecan pie and crispies, a cookie my mother always made. I use all of my mothers and grandmothers recipes all written by their precious hands. I am now writting a cookbook for each of my daugher in laws and nieces, so our family traditions of Southern food can be carried on long after I am gone. Lastly we drink loads of sweet iced tea! The greatest cooking triumph was the first time my homemade vegetable soup turned out like my mothers. I had tried for years to make her soup (there is no recipe) and it never tasted just like hers. She made if for me whenever I was sick, even well into my forties. I made it one day a few months after she died and cried the whole time, but when it was done, it tasted just like hers. I knew then her hand had guided me through the whole process, she was with me the whole time. Mom just had to have something only she could do while living, but gave me the gift to pass on when she died. I can now bring the comfort of her signature dish to my kitchen when I need to spend some time with my mom, she is smiling. My first tradgedy as a young cook was my first pot of beef stew. I did everything my mom told me to do, only thing was, the meat never got tender. So after about 30 minutes I threw it out the back door before my new husband came home from work, and hurriedly make a new dish. Later when discribing to my mom the dish disaster, she explained I had to let the stew simmer for several hours to bet tender! I now make the most awesome beef stew you ever put in your mouth, and mom never told a soul about the food out the back door.