I'm a retired Engineer and discovered some 30+ years ago that cooking relaxed me. I cooked very little in my first marriage, but split (or share) cooking with my now wife of 26 years. We also love to entertain and try new wine pairings with our precious friends. My 'hot' button at first was cajun/creole (which I still love), but have branched into many directions (too many to name one). Our family is so scattered that we have lost the annual get togethers. We do have neighborhood traditions like Superbowl across the street, pool outings next door, a block party Oktoberfest and an annual progressive dinner to name a few. I actually had my steak marinade published in the AZ Republic, complete with my picture. I also used to cook for the company picnic, doing several full prime ribs to feed 80. We've all had them, but the biggest was when I was the preparing the main course for a friend's formal gourmet dinner for 10, complete with $50-100 wines (one for each at the table and one for the table). I was making beef burgundy using filet mignon and had marinated the meat for about 45 minutes. I drained the meat, but not sufficiently and left quite a bit of salt in the taste. I put potatoes in to absorb, but that wasn't enough. I ended up keeping the meat and replacing all of the wine sauce. Truly a 'near miss'. All ended well.