My mom was a Home Economist and I grew up in the kitchen. I'd watch her cook and ask questions about what she was preparing. I learned alot from that. I didn't really start cooking, on my own, until mom's health began to go downhill after she retired in 1988. Mom had a black cookbook that was a preclusion to Better Homes and Gardens and I used that alot. Because I watched mom cook so much, I learned how to cook "good food" right from the start. Cobblers, banana bread, pot roast with vegetables, tamale pie, beef stroganoff, chocolate cherry cheesecake. I realy like making desserts. Am learning how to make apple pie. Just making what mom used to make while I was growing up. To me that's "comfort food". Was this past August 28th. I decided to enter (for the first time) the Jefferson County Fair in Boulder, MT. I entered 1) Apricot-date bars; 2) Banana bread, and 3) Blackberry Cobbler. The apricot-date bars won First Place; the Banana Bread won First Place. The blackberry cobbler won three awards: First Place, Champion, and Best in Show. Don't know that I'd call them tragedies. They were more like "goofs". Recipes that I saw on-line that I decided to make and they didn't turn out as well as I'd seen on t.v. I always know when my fiancee doesn't like a recipe I've made; he doesn't go for a second helping.