what I learned from MY mom was how NOT to make meatloaf! She was a pretty good cook, and though I was a picky eater, I liked most of what she made----except meatloaf. You could hack off a thin slice of her meatloaf and challange someone to a duel with it...*whack*...still intact....or use it for temporary shoe leather.

   She would start out determined to improve, but would look at the mixing bowl and say "It needs more bread crumbs...and another egg or two...", and voila! semi-edible naugahyde! Ketchup was NECESSARY to coat it to get it down.

What she COULD do was proofread...she could glance at a page and pick out spelling errors and grammar problems...I think I picked up a lot of my enderstanding of how language works from her guidance when I was in the early grades.