I'm a graduate student at SUNY at Buffalo. I am presently 27 years of age and I grew up in North Dakota, exposing me to plenty of Norwegian cooking, but alas I did not pick up much of it. My mother's side of the family is Hispanic, so I dearly appreciate many of the Spanish/tomato-y dishes that come out of that style of cooking. I started cooking way back in college when I got tired of dorm food and I missed eating good old Rice'a'Roni. I lived on my own for 3 years, and I got quite good with cooking during that time period! I love spending time cooking something that I know will turn out well. I also love to blare music while I'm cooking (music style depends on my mood, but it's anything 'cept country and R&B). Fettuccine carbonara, turkey and leeks with linguine, homemade spaghetti, cannelloni, omelettes, beer-battered pancakes, fried rice, slow-cooked roasts, garlic and chive mashed potatoes, tamales, pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie, banana bread, schnitzel, spätzle, migas, and quiche. The Spanish/Hispanic cooking would mix in with our daily dining, but not often. I really appreciated the spaghetti sauce made from scratch, and adapted it as needed to suit my own tastes after I left home for college. Outside of that, there was not anything in particular that was outstanding. =( Twice I've done a remarkable job on preparing the Thanksgiving meal in its entirety, and I'm slowly improving it every year! Father's passed-down beer-battered pancakes are always a winner. First time making cannelloni was impressive considering how much of a pain it is to make, I will admit. I'll consider that a triumph! ;) My first time making a pesto dish, I completely forgot what the difference between a clove and a bulb of garlic was. The recipe called for three cloves, and so I was prepared to put in three entire bulbs of garlic, thinking each was a clove! Regardless, I thought one was getting heavy (although far too much in hindsight), so I cut it quits there and finished the pesto. The poor tortellini turned brown from the pesto, and I never had a dish so garlicky in my life (it's all uncooked, yikes)! I tried making a marble cake utilizing Splenda's "measure like sugar" variety. Well, when I blended the two layers to homogeneity, they became very thick. When it was done baking, I had a marble cake that was roughly the density of marble...tasty, but man does sugar make a difference in baking!