1) Moving into a student housing cooperative where I had 24/7 access to a fully stocked industrial sized kitchen and could experiment and cook absolutely anything for students who were grateful to have a hot meal they didn't have to cook for themselves.

2) A great boyfriend who loves anything I cook for him and is incredibly easy to please.  I love feeling like little Betty Homemaker in his kitchen.  haha.  Plus I always want to cook for him since he's always taking me out for dinner and I like to be able to help out and give something back.  

It's wonderful that he's so unfussy about food, because then I'm not afraid of failure.  I've made some really great meals, but occasionally I'll cook chicken too long and it comes out tough or something like that.  He never complains, but if I ask him he can still give constructive criticism on how to make things better.