I learned how to cook when I was young and had to help out in the kitchen as part of my daily chores. When I was 10 years old, my Mom got very ill and was in a coma for about a month. When she came to, she had brain damage and was in the hospital for an additional 3 months. The whole time, my Dad worked and my brother and I cooked supper. We had sausages, peas and mashed potatoes every night for 4 months. Occasionally my wicked step-sister would come over and prepare something else and that was OK with us. Even when Mom got home, her brain damage was so bad that we had to teach her how to do everything...read, write, dress, wash....all the things we take for granted. So we still had to cook but fortunately my Aunt introduced some variety. I remember learning how to cook fried chicken and once I mastered that, we had it every Sunday night.

As for now, I really don't like nuked food and I always try to cook a balanced meal on weekends. Last night I had a baked chicken breast with steamed asparagus with "real" hollandaise sauce.

Alot of times I will also cook in bulk, for example a huge pot of chicken soup, a big lasagne or a whole roast stuffed chicken. That way I can freeze leftovers for lunch and suppers during the week.

...and thanks to Pet Talk, I can now boil the purrrrfect egg!!