I have three passions, my family of course, (husband, 2 grown children, 2 grandkids), stained glass & fused glass, and cooking. My favorite weekend activity is to plan and execute dinners for friends & family, usually 4-5 courses. The goal is to hear "wow", then I've done my job. Appetizers, main's & sides, salads, home made soups. Rarely I enjoy making desserts but love making the fancy decorations for them (i.e. caramel decorations) We host for our staff (of 20-35) a Ukrainian Gift exchange every Christmas (this year is # 11) which includes 2 hrs of Upscale Appetizers, pregifted gift exchange, and Ukrainian Dinner of Hand made Perogies, Cabbage Rolls, Kolbassa. I'd have to say learning to make meals for our (hopefully future daughter in law)son's girlfriend. She is vegetarian and glutten intollerant. Cooking without wheat is easy, but without eggs is quite a challenge. Secondly, yorkshire puddings. After years of never knowing if they were going to be awesome or hockey pucks, I spent a day doing nothing but research on the internet, trying different tricks and recipes, running to the store for more eggs & milk and pans. I have now made them 5 times in a row where they were at least 5" tall. I think I have it now. The hockey pucks I was making at least 50 % of the time before I learned to make yorkshire's properly. And, although I make creme brulle all the time, at a family dinner party (12 people) I broiled the brulle to caramelize the tops instead of using my torch (to speed things up) and melted them all.