believe me, cora, many of my creations in my first few years of cooking were real stinkers. fortunately, i cooked for myself and for girlfriends that
had to like it.
i think my cooking got better as i learned the basics from watching cooking shows and really a lot of what i've learned here. things like the difference between sweating and browning, how the maillard reaction works and why it's important in certain dishes, when to add herbs, how to finish dishes with salt or butter or other flavor enhancers, when to keep something plain and simple to highlight a particular ingredient, or when you're going for deeper, more complex tastes, and the balance of ingredients in the latter, etc..
watching the giants like julia child or jacques pepin, or maryanne esposito
or lidia bastianich really helps to learn basic techniques which can be expanded upon.
btw, i have a picky spouse as well, but so long as i make it healthy (
low fat, low cholesterol, whole grains, etc.) she'll at least give it a try. your hubby is a health nut too, so try to sell it to him that way.
something that got me into the creative part was doing the food shopping,
iron chef style. that is when i went food shopping, i'd pick up an ingredient that i liked (usually on sale) and i'd think, "if i were an iron chef, what 5 things could i make with this". and then the creativity would kick in. what different techniques could i employ to make this tasty. then as i'd continue shopping, other stuff on sale would help steer me as to what kind of dish i might make.