I am the oldest of 7 kids in my family, so I have been cooking since I can remember! I am also post-bacc student of science and have become very aware of the nutritional deficits in our standard American diet(SAD). I love rich flavors with lots of nutrients, and not a lot of fat. I love to take a vegetable and make it a main course! Add a little fresh pasta or whole grain rice and you have yourself a great meal. I specialize in vegetarian dishes, but I do love to incorporate the occasional serving of fresh poultry, crab, or shrimp. My family traditions weren't the healthiest, to tell you the truth. Although my mother avoided the obvious pitfalls for us kids (soda pop, candy, chips, and fried/fast foods), we ate a lot of what was easiest; boxed, canned, pre-processed meals. Now that I'm an adult I like to focus on "fresh first", and then add on some extras. The one family home style meal I come back to when I'm down is a bowl of macaroni and cheese. I just make sure I mix a good bunch of broccoli in there. YUM! I was able to cater an entire last-minute business brunch for my mother at the age of 14. It served around 25 people, and I whipped everything up in less than an hour and a half! I tried for years to make tapioca pudding, and it always came out sloppy and terrible. It was the single thing that eluded me as a cook, until (at the age of 11 or 12) I realized that the package was wrong, and the recipe should have called for 3-4 tablespoons, not teaspoons, of tapioca granules. Since then, I have learned to trust myself as a chef, and not always rely on a package or a single recipe.