I grew up with a mom that didnt like to cook so we had "basic" meals. Grandma was an awesome cook. By the time I was allowed to cook, Grandma retired from cooking so I had to start to get some variety and tasty food to eat. It was easy to cook in Michigan with the cold winters. Making homecooking was fun. I now live in Arizona and lets face it those home cooking meals in the middle of summer just aint happening much so I have adapted to more hot weather friendly food such as salads with protein rich ingredients, even protien pancakes and smoothies. I love to cook something i've not tried before. Scalloped corn for every holiday. I crave this at every holiday. I only make during the holidays so it keeps feeling like a holiday dish. A wedding cake. Made the perfect shade of champagne for the icing. Made a beef rouladen, well tried. Served to my husband he sat there trying to eat it, kept chewing and chewing. I finally sat down to eat and it was the toughest meat ever. I told him to put his fork down and we will go out for dinner. He was so sweet he would have sat there and ate the whole thing. I promised I would never make a rouladen for him again. I still havent to this day and that was 20 yrs ago....perhaps I will try again now that I can cook.