I'm a mexican living in canada, married for 10 years to a man that grew up eating bland food and hated vegetables and spicy food, (I did mention I was mexican, spicy is my middle name)needless to say he's addicted to spicy food, and loves most vegetables. I really like baking, it still amazes me, how you thow something in the oven for a while and voila, delicious food in your plate. My mom, a divorced working mother of 3, never had time to cook and when she did it was always tasteless and burnt, I grew up thinking rice was supposed to taste like that, so, my only goal at first was to not burn the food, then to make it tasty. I've been cooking for a long time, but never attempted to roast a turkey, it seem daunting, and there was always someone willing to do it, but having not been able to go home for thanksgiving, and my husband still wanting to have a turkey dinner, I thought I give it a go, if it didn't work there would still be everything else to eat (I perfected mashed potatoes a while ago), but it turned out great, moist, flavorful, perfectly roasted. I used to get flustered and sometimes downright angry while I cooked, it seemed I needed extra hands while I cooked even simple stuff like pasta, then I figured out, get every thing ready, and I mean everything, all your ingredients measured, read the recipe beforehand, and if you know that you don't like an ingredient, don't use it, made that mistake with lasagna, I wasn't sure about nutmeg in it, I added it anyways and guess what, I hated that dish, same goes for substitutions, sometimes a recipe would ask for lemon zest, but I prefer orange, so I use that instead. I also try to use good products, like actual vanilla extract as opposed to the artificial kind. You know better what flavors you like, also if a dish ask for raw eggs I make sure I taste it before I add them and tweak if needed, you can't taste after you put them in until it is cooked, and for me at least it has been too late. And my last about pasta dishes, always make the sauce first, sauce can wait, pasta can't.