My favourite challenge is to create an exciting dinner when we have friends over.

Oh, you think there's no programming angle? Actually there is. An important thing for creating a good dinner is time management. All ingredients should be ready at the same time, and if the guests babysitter has to leave at 11, appetisers shouldn't be served at 10.

And we all know many programmers (and other IT people) don't excel in time management. So, if you want to improve your time management (or, in general, resource management; your stove only holds so many pans, the size of the oven is limited, etc), go cook!