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My dad always called it a hole-in-one.

Chowing down on pork ribs at family picnics.

Quinoa with peas, walnuts, and parmesan cheese.

Dim sum and a pot of tea.

I'm Southern, so I have lots of pork memories to choose from. I guess I think most fondly on the times my mom and I would roll up rumaki. I felt very debonair and grown up slathering chicken livers and bacon with soy sauce.

The one item a senior deserves: Béquet Caramels. These combine the familiar (caramel) with the unfamiliar (chipotle pepper and sea salt). Plus, the students can share - an important consideration in the dorms or apartments. After four years, the kids deserve something sweet.

Olive salad.

Honeycrisp apples, sliced thin & served with room temperature brie, walnuts, and honey. (It's good baked, too, but nothing can beat the crunch of a cool Honeycrisp.)

Pear salad. At every fancy dinner, my dad and I were in charge of making the salad course. My mother always expected us to grow up and make an elegant salad with baby greens and a homemade vinaigrette. That never happened. To this day, my dad and I always make pear salad. Put a leaf of iceberg lettuce on a plate, plop half of a canned pear (not a fresh one - the horror!) on top of the lettuce, fill the pear with Blue Plate mayonnaise, add grated cheddar cheese and a maraschino cherry.

Rugelach or brisket. Please don't make me choose.

"Your personal finances will be greatly improved." Not so much.

Mostly my mom. She is a wonderful cook. I didn't cook much for a long time, but now I get in the kitchen every day, and every time I have a culinary success or failure I'm reminded of cooking with my mom.