I didn't do very much cooking until what I have been trying to do right now with the help of allrecipes.com. I don't have many excuses not to learn to cook. I have enjoyed trying new recipes and not eating the same things week after week. The menu set up and shopping list has been a great help to a beginner like me. I have only just begun seriously cooking meals that expand further than the same 3 courses. A meat, frozen vegetable and packaged pasta. So far I have made a lot of soups and stews because it is winter. I also make Mexican food because we like to eat it. I just made an "enchilada casserole" like the one my mom makes using the Burrito Pie Recipe here on site. A lot of people grew up with Corned beef and Cabbage and so did I. My boyfriend and I enjoy cooking it often. This Christmas I made Russian Tea Cookies for the first time and they came out just like my moms when she would make a variety of cookies. I have several others to try next especially Snickerdoodls, they were an all time favorite at our house. Recently I was able to successfully prepare salmon well enough for my boyfriend to say he liked it. Him not liking salmon was a huge obstacle to overcome. The recipe Grilled Salmon 1 is what I used from this site. I also made the Anaheim Fish Tacos in order to bring healthier food to our diet and he loved those too. A recipe cooking pork in the crock pot called for apple cider. I completely miss read it and used apple cider vinegar. It wasn't till near the end of the meal that my boyfriend politely asked if It was supposed to have so much vinegar. I have since made it correctly and we both enjoyed it.