The only thing that I make that always get raves is my baked ziti. I've never been much of a baker though...unless it comes from a box :p

My grandma is one of those rare people. All of her cookies and cakes and breads are all from scratch and delicious, but everything she cooks is as well.
If I had to say which she is, a cook or a baker, I'd say a cook now...growing up I would have said a baker.
She makes everything. Homemade spaghetti sauce, blackberry cobbler, zucchini bread, cookies of all sorts, delicious REAL Kentucky fried chicken, unbelievable cornbread, awesome fudge & various candies like hard tack. I think it's the era she grew up in. 13 brothers and sisters, being the oldest, she had to learn to do both things well.

My gramma is the same way. She can cook or bake the hell out of anything. When she bakes, she just measures using her hands. Never needs measuring cups or spoons. Wonder if I'll be that good someday!

I grew up with a mother who could bake, a father who could cook, and both parents a little overprotective of their kitchen.

It wasn't really until I got married that I learned to cook and bake.

I also learned to can. I make hot pepper jelly every year from the surplus in our garden. I've taken 3rd in 2008 and 2009, and 2nd prize this year at the State Fair. Someday, I'll get a Blue Ribbon and the $8 prize that goes with it. :p

we can post our recipes in the recipe thread i just bumped.

yet another instance where I feel a "like" button is appropriate

This is my problem. I was raised with knowing what something should look or taste like.


BTW, my future sister-in-law makes stuffing with very fine ground meat & spinach in it. It's amazingly good!

Here's a really good book for those who want some freedom in the kitchen: Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA240_.jpg

Blurb:

Ratios are the simple proportions of one ingredient to another. Biscuit dough is 3 : 1 : 2 -- or 3 parts flour, 1 part fat, and 2 parts liquid. This ratio is the beginning of many variations, and because the biscuit takes sweet and savory flavors with equal grace, you can top it with whipped cream and strawberries or sausage gravy. Vinaigrette is 3 : 1, or 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar, and is one of the most useful sauces imaginable, giving everything from grilled meats and fish to steamed vegetables or lettuces intense flavor.

Cooking with ratios will unchain you from recipes and set you free. With thirty-three ratios and suggestions for enticing variations, Ratio is the truth of cooking: basic preparations that teach us how the fundamental ingredients of the kitchen -- water, flour, butter and oils, milk and cream, and eggs -- work. Change the ratio and bread dough becomes pasta dough, cakes become muffins become popovers become crepes.

As the culinary world fills up with overly complicated recipes and never-ending ingredient lists, Michael Ruhlman blasts through the surplus of information and delivers this innovative, straightforward book that cuts to the core of cooking. Ratio provides one of the greatest kitchen lessons there is -- and it makes the cooking easier and more satisfying than ever.

I love this book.

My signature dish is Gumbo!! I probably make a gumbo at least 8 times during the fall/winter. It's super easy (which is why I can't understand the crap they serve in restaurants outside Louisiana...seriously, it's not hard to make a real gumbo, but you serve that pitiful, hot ham water?!)

Anyway, I also make braised pork tacos/ pork roast that's pretty dang good.

I have to get this book. Seriously.

Loaded Potato Soup, Lasagna and Hot Browns. A Hot Brown is turkey or ham on toast covered with homemade cheese sauce, tomatoes and bacon. It was made famous at the Brown Hotel in Louisville, Ky.(my birthplace) My family requests Hot Browns every year after Thanksgiving.

I'll PM you later when i'm home.

Hot Browns are called Turkey Devonshires in Pittsburgh - yummy!