I'm from Oregon and raised on lots of meat, potatos & fresh veggies in the summer. My parents taught me how to cook at a young age, we all worked together to prepare our meals. The older I got, the more I ventured out to different foods and styles of cooking. Now I can't get enough of cooking! My favorite food is spicy Mexican food and there are always jalapenos in my house. I like trying new things. Allrecipes has been my addiction for a long time now but I finally joined 9/07. Appetizers are my most favorite to try because I can make multiple recipes for the same gathering! I love to please people via the tummy. Thanksgiving sticks out in my mind when thinking back on our family traditions, the stuffing particularly. The onion and celery browning in the skillet is one of those "bring me back" kind of smells. I always liked it when my parents would let my sister and I mix it up with our hands and stuff it into the turkey. On my boyfriend's birthday I had invited family over for carrot cake and appetizers. I used Mary Anne's Carrot Cake (without raisins) from this site and it was a hit. I also made Mexican themed appetizers, some that I created myself and some I got from this site. I got rave reviews on absolutely everything! I remembered the night before that I was to make my deviled eggs for our office Christmas party. That night I cooked the eggs and tried them the way my sister in law said by bringing to a boil and letting them sit. I left them in the fridge overnight and planned to make them in the morning. They ended up not cooking completely so some yolks were more yellow but I tried to make it anyway. I then realized I only had fat free mayo in the house and was getting nervous about how these would turn out. I tried to make them anyway and they were horrible! I tried to put spices in to make it better but it just made it worse. I ended up throwing it all out and buying store bought baguettes and spinach dip on my way to work.