Chef for a week

For a long while now, I've been really wanting to learn how to cook. I want to be able to cook and cook well. Now, I can make a few things like meatloaf, Crockpot Chicken, and Chicken Chilie, but I haven't ever made anything new. Well, I have....once. But it was a horrible experience and a not much better meal, so I try to block that memory from my mind.
I've tried my hand at making pasta salad twice. Both times it's been fun and satisfactory to put some creative effort into my food and then eat it. Well, with these successes, I took the advice of my brother, Ryan, and decided to make a meal plan for the dinners of the week.
So, without telling anyone, I went snooping around foodnetwork.com for recipes that captured my interest. I knew I wouldn't have to plan anything for Sunday, and I wasn't going to do anything for Saturday either. So, I was going to find 5 recipes. Suddenly, everything started coming together so I talked to Mom and told her about how I wanted to take over the kitchen for the week. She was all too pleased, as you can imagine.
Well, I'm not going to tell you the recipes until I make them. However, I promise to write a post for each recipe so you can follow me on my journey of cooking. Also, I'll take pictures. :)