I'm willing to bet that the most attractive thing about this franchise is the socialization aspect. Imagine being a harried SAHM. Imagine all the demands on your time and always having to be in charge of organizing and coordinating everything, but being expected to pull everything off because "you don't work." Not only would this be a nice excuse to socialize with grown-ups, but not having to be "in charge" would be nice too! Also, a lot of women my age were taught to scorn anything domestic as somehow beneath us. As someone who has come to voluntarily embrace domesticity, I realize how much about cooking I didn't learn. Now mind you, I cook from scratch nearly every night, but if I were still working 60 hour weeks in the corporate rat race, that wouldn't be an option, and this would be a nice compromise. It would be a safe way to transition from processed crap to home-cooked if a person didn't intuitively know how to do it. Ell, your words made me laugh. My one cooking rule is: No cream of something soup! My parents thought I was snobby about this, as nearly everything they made for us growing up contained this. I don't care for the taste or the sodium. And the MSG gives Steve nasty headaches... My crock pot gets A LOT of use... but so do all my kitchen appliances. I enjoy cooking and consider it artistic expression. I'd never look down at anyone for frequenting one of these franchises... I think they make a lot of sense for a big segment of the market... but at this time of my life, they don't make sense for me...

I grew up on hot dogs with cheese and crescent rolls, fish sticks and french fries. No Hamburger Helper - my mom would brown the meat, pour in a can of gravy, and mix it with egg noodles. Spaghetti was browned meat, add a jar of sauce, when the noodles were mushy drain them then mix in with the sauce in large pot - even mushier the next day reheated! We used to joke that Mom knew something was done when it boiled over. I took my mom's Good Housekeeping cookbook to college (summer after freshman year when I moved into apt). I learned to make killer mashed potatoes (sour cream and egg) from a roommate - we ate a lot of meatloaf - and also started *topping* the spaghetti with sauce instead of mixing it in the pot. I then progressed to meatballs ;-) Never having learned the terminology, I did mess up a few times - like when the gazpacho recipe called for a clove of garlic and I put in a whole head. But live and learn - I acquired more cookbooks, watched TV (The Frugal Gourmet was a favorite), and bought exotic ingredients like olive oil and spices (other than black pepper and garlic salt/onion salt which are still the only items in my mom's pantry). I'm still not great at cooking fish other than salmon or shellfish, and I can't seem to get everything done at the same time (thank goodness for rice cookers and crock pots) unless I use frozen veggies and nuke them. DD is so picky that I haven't even tried cooking any "ethnic" food in 4-5 years, though I will still make things like seafood for the rest of us and just give her a sandwich or hot dog. But we're pretty much grilled meat and rice/pasta now (she won't eat potatoes - though I make sweet potatoes for the rest of us, throw white potatoes in slow cooker for "coq sans vin"). Neither of my kids will eat casseroles, though I used to make a mean moussaka. My grandma was a baker - but she didn't tend to write things down, when she did recipes were either incomplete or multiple versions. I did write down a couple (and have modified them to be healthier) when I was watching her. At least I learned from her to keep your pastry dough cold and handle it as little as possible to keep it tender! I've caught Alton Jones a few times when we had cable, enjoyed his approach. I also read Bakewise cover to cover in one night and would like to find Cookwise.

Sorry, it's been very whirlwind, and I have't checked back in for a few days, as I thought the thead had died. Thanks Sharon and Annie for your help. Winslow didn't fit in our schedule, as we had to make it to Temecula CA Friday afternoon for the rehearsal dinner. We stayes in Seligman at the Canyon Lodge. A nice little Rte 66 motel. The best part of that motel was the delightful German gentleman at the desk. We're on our way home now and are in Albuquerque. I appreciate the warm wishes and help. I really want to make this trip again. And yes, The Blue Swallow is the best little motel we stayed in, not counting the Air B&B place in Temecula. That was outstanding. It was a nice RV at a petting zoo and chocolate factory with spectacular views in the heart of wine country. What's more to like about that? Sally

Been there, tried that. I could not find a cooking forum. When I went to the top for "Stories and advice" the click on Gardenweb did not work. I went back to my old method of placing a message by going to e-mail message and clicking "See". This got me to that one cooking topic and I could click on Cooking. I then could see all of the cooking discussions but there was nothing like "Start a new topic". At the top of the page was a banner looking like an advertisement that asked me to enter my project or something like that. I was then presented with a huge list of fora. As I said, I somehow accidentally was able to get my question asked. I wonder what will happen next time. The old method was easy but that is probably why it was changed.