I've gone through many cooking stages. Didn't know how to cook when married and worked evenings as a newlywed, so easy was key for me. After leaving the workforce, I had an interest in learning more about cooking and doing more things from scratch. Now I'm a senior citizen and often must choose easy over scratch, but there are a lot more flavorful options out there to make things easier. My favorites are old family recipes from my maternal grandmother, my husband's mother, my mother, and everyone's in-laws. My mother-in-law was an excellent cook and invented a lot of her own recipes. Anytime someone cooks something I find wonderful, I never hesitate to ask for the recipe. Lasagne, a very old recipe for Macaroni Salad, my mother-in-law's Eggplant Casserole, and "Sinkers," great potato rolls. The first time I tried to cook fried chicken - raw on the inside and burnt on the outside! It went flying, literally!