Where do you find your recipes?  Have they been in your family for years, like some of mine have?  Grandma had the best recipes, didn't she? The good old fashioned, clog your arteries 'cause everything was made with butter recipes. Yum! I think I have about 60 cookbooks in my collection, but none of them are as good as the recipes that I have hand written from my mother and grandmother.  Some of the things in the new cookbooks don't even sound appetizing!  I have never even heard of some of the ingredients, either.  I don't even know where I would look to find some of the stuff a recipe calls for.  What has happened to our cooking?  Everything is boxed and packaged and pre-mixed.  One really good cookbook to get your hands on is one written by the Amish people.  Those recipes are plain, good cooking! Nothing fancy, just recipes for every day food made with ingredients that you find in your cupboards.To me, mashed potatoes are just potatoes, milk and butter with a little salt and pepper.  I was reading a recipe for "fancy" mashed potatoes that called for about 7 ingredients, and none of them were butter or milk!  How about making a cake from scratch?  Does anybody even do that anymore?  It's all about 'gourmet' food. Gourmet meat, gourmet side dishes and whatever else you want to put the word gourmet in front of.  Good grief! Get out that worn out cookbook that you have hidden away somewhere, and use the recipes you will find in there!  Eat well, and be happy!