@Lilith70
I'm one of those lucky people who gets to work from home (for now), so I have a bit of time here and there to try out new ideas in the kitchen to keep my foody-brained kids and hubby entertained. I'm also a compulsive do-it-yourself-er. I knit, sew, cook, sculpt, paint, and do whatever home improvements I can shoe-horn into my budget. I tend to buy base ingredients in bulk and then make as much as I can from scratch. I also (most years) try to keep a well-stocked garden for fresh veggies and herbs, and that's a heck of a challenge up where in rural Wyoming. As far as cookbooks are concerned, I am painfully spoiled since I inherited all of my grandmother's gourmet cookbooks, including her translations of my grandfather's royal Austrian recipes. And yes, that includes squab, quail, boar, venison, and moose. Beyond that, I also tend to collect as many recipes as I can get my hands on, modifying them to fit the kids' tastes and my locally-available ingredients (a serious consideration, especially in the winter time).