I'm a Food Service Specialist Second Class (FS2) in the Coast Guard, currently stationed on a Medium Endurance Cutter out of Boston. This summer I will be transferring to Station Gloucester. I've been in the Guard for 3 years, and prior to that was in the bar/restaurant industry for 5 years. I have bartended/waited/cooked/bounced in Boston, Lowell, Westford and Cape Cod Mass, as well as New Orleans, Dallas, and Las Vegas. I love to cook all kinds of food, and am always looking to make something new or different in order to increase my knowledge of ingredients, food science and cultural cuisines. However if I had to choose, I would say my favorites are Italian, Middle-Eastern/Mediterranean, Southern American and Caribbean. I grew up cooking with my Grandmother, who was a wonderful French-Canadian/Cajun home cook. Her tomato soup is probably my favorite childhood recipe. From what I remember: In an enameled Dutch oven, sweat mire poix in butter, add tomato paste, canned stewed tomatoes with juice, chicken broth, onion soup mix (her secret!), splash of wine, rice or pasta and a lot of white pepper. So simple, but to this day the best soup I've ever had. Also, my mother somehow has a gift for Italian, and her stuffed shells florentine with homemade red sauce got me (and my roommates) through a lot of nights at college. Every time I make something that people like is a triumph in my eyes. The first one that comes to me though is the first time I made Christmas dinner for my crew. I was the "new guy" (2 months on the boat) and had to stand duty Christmas day. One of the other people on duty that day was my Chief, a Coast Guard cook for 17 years. No pressure! I stayed until 9pm Christmas eve prepping and cooking everything I could ahead of time. The next day I came in, made breakfast, lunch and then knocked out a Christmas dinner of roast elk tenderloin w/ wild cherry and clove sauce, glazed ham, ALL the fixin's, soup, salad bar, and 10 pies for a crew of 30. Everyone loved it, and my Chief invited me into the Chief's Mess to play cards. Another good one - When living in Las Vegas I had some friends over for Thanksgiving. We were all transplants, had no family in the area, and probably none of them would have had a homecooked meal that day. For the last year I have been the baker on board while underway. That generally means making 2 desserts, a coffee break item, and fresh bread and biscuits 7 nights a week for a crew of 100. Oh, and I have to make a meal for the overnight watchstanders while doing it! It was one of those nights where nothing is coming easy. I had key lime pie on the menu, usually not too hard, so I put it towards the end of my to do list. When I went to get my ingredients I realized i only had 3 bottles of juice, when I needed 6. My mind started working and I had what at the time (2am) seemed like a flash of brilliance - Cape Codders! Cranberry and Lime go great together in cocktails, why not try a pie? Long story longer, it turned this funky greyish purple color, never set and ruined my night. But I still mean to make it work one of these days!