@Asma6319
I grew up with Lebanese and Cajun food, but only knew how to cook about 4 things when I left home for college: my dad's chicken gumbo, my mom's baked chicken, my grandmother's mahshi (stuffed grapeleaves, squash, and zucchini), and my dad's ma'mool (date or nut-filled cookies). I love to cook food for people that they enjoy, though, so the years since leaving home have been almost a quest for accumulating good recipes and trying to reproduce the delicious things I ate in childhood - the perfectly crispy kibbeh, the dainty spinach pies, the stuffed cabbage, and yeah even my mom's meatloaf! Through college, I only picked up enough recipes to satisfy myself when I really needed a taste of home. I hadn't become a creative or a good cook yet - I just had a few perfect recipes that I followed to the T. But when I got engaged to my egyptian husband, I knew that I had only a year before marriage to actually *learn to cook*. I love the idea of making a home and feeding my family delicious and nutritious food. So lo and behold, during my engagement I was living in a town where all of my friends were fabulous cooks - plus a friend of mine opened a palestinian restaurant and hired me as a chef. Through those two avenues, I actually learned cooking skills: how to season to taste, improvise when ingredients are missing, make a broth, marinate meats, raise a dough... When I finally got married, my husband was pleased with my cooking, and so was I, but only one of us knew how much effort it had taken for me to learn :) I truly feel that cooking skills have made me richer as a person. Good food is a silent language - you can communicate love and hospitality through it without a word. And that's the reward for me.