Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I'm only 21, but have been cooking full meals since middle school. My mother used to cook every dinner, but when she took a part-time job, she no longer had the time or energy. So divided up the week and each of us (my parents, brother, sister, and I) each took two days a week to make dinner. My sister was only about 8 at the time, but she still learned how to make food other than Mac and Cheese and we're all, I think, great cooks now.

Jewish Rye bread spread with thinly sliced sauteed shitake mushrooms, thinly sliced provolone cheese, with a few capers sprinkled over the top mildly toasted. (My favoriter toaster oven treat)

*note for an interesting flavor add (in addition to the butter the mushrooms are being sauteed in) a teaspoon of peanut butter.

*leftover turkey gravy from thanksgiving dinner boiling hot on buttered whole wheat toast

*bacon, tomato and real mayo

*virgina ham and white super sharp cheddar, layered on buttered wheat toast and broiled til melty

*honey roasted peanut butter

*roasted chicken breast (leftover), garden tomato and watercress

*eggs scrambled with half and half, mixed with cooked sausage, tomato, cheddar and topped with white gravy!!!

Good Morning! I just started my day topping my toast with mayo and big thick slices of homegrown beefsteak tomatoes and a little freshly ground sea salt and pepper. Heavenly.

@NativeRose...wow thanks for commenting on my post from almost a year ago! I have never eaten gluten-free bread but the brown-sugar & cinnamon cream cheese really sounds good :)

SE...what's your latest toast topper? Can we beat the 308#...actually I think the # is up to 312?

Cooking connects us. So many people live unconnected lives today, and fast/easy food is just a symptom of that disconnection, as I see it.

Old fart here, 64. I learned to cook in my late 20's when I realized that if I was going to live alone, I'd better learn to cook. It simply never occurred to me to eat out, I couldn't have afforded it. So I went out and bought the "Joy of Cooking" and made myself beef stew. The recipe called for turnips, it was horrid. I immediately realized that I simply didn't like the taste of cooked turnips. So I threw it away, and cooked it again without turnips. It was delicious, I realized that a recipe was simply the way someone else had made a recipe, and that I could decide what would be good, and what I wouldn't like. At that moment, a cook was born.

40 years later, I still love to cook. For me, as others here have alluded, it is a meditation. But beyond that, it is a gift, as I have taken my time, and my creativity to provide others with my love.

I was involved with a family that were good cooks, but had a limited repertoire. Every time I suggested an idea that was new to them they turned their noses up. Today, they always look forward to my latest creation.

My good friends never ask what I'm preparing, they only ask what time they should be there. So it is possible to influence others with your actions, you just have to keep at it, and what a joy that is.