I was exposed to cooking back when I was in college. A friend of mine was a Home Ec major (now called Family Economics) and some of the cooking she did rubbed off on me. At the time, I tried to look as bored as possible with what she was doing, but made it a point to memorize everything she did. The interesting thing about cooking is the sense of community it creates. A good home-cooked meal is a thousand times better than picking up some food at a drive through. Good home cooked meals build relationships. Fast food pretty much destroys them. I guess it is an interesting dichotomy that a lot of people are starting to recognize. Soups, sauteed vegetables, casseroles, pies and bread. My grandmothers were always making chicken soup and noodles. There were also a number of dishes and pastries that they both cooked for certain times of the year. After becoming a vegetarian, I missed chicken soup and noodles (with vegetables). After about a year of false-starts, I came up with a vegetarian version of chicken, vegetables and noodles that seems to be a pretty good substitute. I have served this to non-vegetarians and they have always thought they were eating regular chicken soup and noodles. Turkey with White Castle stuffing served for Thanksgiving a long time ago. At least, I learned to: "Never use a new recipe for a big holiday meal." The other tragedies are pizza. My Home Ec major friend made a pizza with barbecue sauce that was absolutely delicious. I can make a standard pizza without any trouble. But I have never been able to replicate pizza with barbecue sauce--the way I remember it.