I've been cooking since I was eight years old. My mom is a self confessed terrible cook so my education came in the form of the food network. In the last year I began baking more and have found this challenging. I'm still perfecting things like creaming butter and adjusting the bake time for my old oven. I'm sensitive to any dairy products so many of the recipes I come across have to be modified. This has been challenging and I am still trying to find a good butter substitute. I enjoy feeding people and nothing makes me happier than a contented full guest. :) Cooking for friends and family. Everyone has a specific recipe they love and I really enjoy seeing them happy ... so my favorite things to cook are recipes that bring joy to the people I love. Cooking a huge Thanksgiving dinner for my family when I was 13 years old. I made homemade cheese biscuits, creamy sweet potato soup, giblet gravy, green bean casserole made with a homemade cream of mushroom soup, sour cream/chive mashed potatoes garnished with crisp bacon, homemade citrus cranberry relish, and an apple crumble. And of course baked a 16 lb turkey. :P There are so many! :P The first time I attempted to make flan I decided to serve it with a strawberry coulee sauce. The sauce was terrible. I didn't use superfine sugar or strain the sauce so it ended up really grainy. The combination of super silky flan with odd sand-like particles was horrendous.