My experince with cooking

Growing up, I was never really interested in cooking, despite the many attempts my mother would make to encourage and teach me. I just did not put in the effort.
It was August of 2007, Dom and I had been married just about two months when I realized I needed to figure out this cooking thing. He was really the better cook, but I knew that I needed to improve my skills and take over this area.
One night I had made a simple meal , rice a roni, battered chicken and corn. I served it up and we sat down to eat. He took one bite, managed a swallow, looked at me and asked "Are you ready to hear this"? I wasn't sure what he was getting at, so asked him to continue. His next words shocked me: "this is the worst meal I have ever had in my life"! I am not exaggerating. And as a newlywed, trying to impress my husband, I immediately started crying. Honestly I don't blame him though...I burned the rice a roni, the battered chicked tasted like really dry chicked covered in burned flour and the corn was way overcooked and tasted like nothing! I knew I needed to change this and it was a good wake up call.
The next day I called my friend and she gave me a super easy crockpot pot roast recipe that you can't go wrong with. Dom came home that night to a wonderful smellling house and food that he could actually swallow!!
Our first year of marriage I didn't have much of a chance to work on cooking because we were on the Dave Ramsey money saving kick and ate a LOT of salmon (thanks to his fishing expertise), beans and rice and tuna. So it was definitely a bland year in terms of cooking. But paying of $15,000 in debt definitely made it worth while!!
Fast forward to this year, I will take a mintue to brag because of the horrible beginning I had in cooking...Dom LOVES everything I make and prefers it to going out to eat (which is kind of a bummer because I love going out to eat...but it saves money and we have a tight budget). I also LOVE cooking. When I was in France I lived in the gastronomical capital of the country (Lyon) and they have the best restaurants and the best chefs there. So that year I tried AMAZING food (and wine!) that I have yet to beat here. My goal now is to work on cooking and maybe not mirror what I at there (hard to beat), but learn to cook things that I enjoy. I'm having fun.
I have been attending a free cooking class at William Sonoma (thanks for the info Julia!) and this last week I stood next to a woman who was French and now lives in Portland. It was so cool to be able to talk in French and find out extra tips about French cooking from a native!! It was a treat.
Anyway, all of this to say that I am working on my cooking, have improved from our first year of marriage (not hard to do though!) and I enjoy taking pictures of some of the things that I have made. :)
Here is the most recent one:

Sauteed chicken in a white wine sauce...sooo yummy!!