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Thanks.
The food quality has been getting alot better in the last couple of months. Some of it undoubtably comes from learning which recipes to choose, but I think a large part has just come from better technique and more experience. I didn't really think about this question until two weeks ago, when we made a fish dish that I felt was really dissapointing. We had a friend over and she said that the quality was almost exactly the same as a dish we had made for her 6 months ago. At the time, I was very happy about the food quality, and this time I was really dissatisfied. I still have a long way to go in terms of being able to make up stuff on the fly though... But in terms of being able to do the basics (searing meat, sauces, etc) I think that things have gotten alot better recently.
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It's one of thsoe f'd up truths, I think, that a real sign of advancement is usually disatisfaction with your own results.
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I once took a graduate seminar on the morality of happiness. One of the things that I took away from it was a description of the human tendency to be on what is called the "hedonic treadmill".
Here is the wikipedia entry on the term, but here is the jist of it: "Humans rapidly and inevitably adapt to good things by taking them for granted. The more possessions and accomplishments we have, the more we need to boost our level of happiness." What this means, is that if we raise the bar for our cooking we will be satisfied but we will quickly adapt our expectations and will seek even greater excellence/taste.