I'm not a professional, but I love to cook and I love to experiment even more! I love to bake - I just don't get to do it enough. But I also love making pasta dishes and finding unique things to do with chicken. The only tradition that we have in my family is to be as creative as possible with what we have in the kitchen. We didn't always have the money to go buy the obvious ingredients, so my dad would make his "Dad's Suprise" and it was usually really good! I'm really good at smelling a spice and telling you what foods it will work with - so I usually start with a meat and sniff around the spice cabinet for what inspires me. So far my favorite creation is a sage dry rub for chicken - sage, paprika, garlic powder - the last two ingredients are my secret! Okay I've had two major ones. When I was 14, I was experimenting as usual and I was making spaghetti for the family. I love the sweet and savory combo in marinara sauce so I tried to recreate by putting grape jelly in the sauce. Oh it was so gross - to this day my 3 brothers have never let me forget. The other was when I was just starting to date my husband and I make manicotti, but decided to do a sausage and cheese mix instead of just cheese. I ended up using breakfast sausage! I didn't even realize it. But my loving man ate it anyway. It was pretty good, but there was this horrendous maple aftertaste. My two biggest blunders.