I went from being a full time working mom (ordering out as 3-4 time a week) to a stay at home mom who rarely gets the chance for take out these days. I enjoy spenting time with friends, family and my 3 beautiful children. Especially now that my 6 1/2 year old daughter who enjoys helping in the kitchen as much as she possibly can. I have to say, I enjoy make quit a few dishes. A few that become regulars in my home are, my mother in laws meat and potato roast(throw it in a pan put it in the oven and forget about it)Breaded pork tenderloin and hashbrown cassorole....and many many others I don't think we really have any cooking traditions with the exception of christmas. For as long as I can remember my aunt Carol was in charge of Christmas dinner and all that goes with it. 3 Years ago it was passed down to me because of my love for cooking ( I wish it would of come with an instuction video and a bottle of advil)lol-- We are now starting our own tradition with my hot apple cider (a little help came from my epicure spice collection) as well as my a few special holiday cookies. You can garentee they are on my table christmas day I think my biggest triumph so far was mastering some of my mother in laws recipes. She is portuguese, and I am definely not. But I've mastered her family meat sauce recipe which is now one of my family favorites ( including family that may be visiting) I'm still working hard on some of the more tradional portuguese foods, so if you have any good recipes I'd love to see them :) unfortunately I can mess up the simplest recipes (no joke) I didnt learn how to make Kraft Dinner until 3 years ago lol. But my biggest cooking boo boo came when I decided to cook baked potatoes in the microwave. The potatoes caught on fire and my fathers brand new microwave had seen it's last day :( Needless to say its been 8 years and I'm still hearing about it