I enjoy sitting down with friends (or alone) and having a delicious meal - its one of life's great simple pleasures. This is my motivation for cooking - enjoying what I make for myself and sharing with friends. whatever I'm cooking at the moment I love to cook. I like baking and making desserts and quick breads. I love cooking a good old fashioned Sunday dinner, from roast chicken, roast pork tenderloin, pot roast, I think I like comfort food cooking the best. In the fall I really like making soups (butternut squash, sweet potato & apple). My recent escapade was getting a kitchen blow torch for carmelizing sugar on creme brulee - what fun! Christmas cookies during the holiday season, a glorious, clove studded, glazed ham for New Years and Easter, fresh Jersey corn and tomatos during the summer (corn chowder, corn fritters, corn on the cob, corn/tomato salad - need I say more!) I always enjoy making a great turkey on Thanksgiving. I've brined a bird, roasted it stuffed and unstuffed and I've always been pleased with the turkey! You have to watch it carefully. My next foray is a turkey fryer and making fried turkey for the holiday. For Thanksgiving 2008 I'm brining again and doing an herb butter rub and probably using a butter/broth soaked cheezecloth - Yum! Each year I also experiment with the stuffing. Last year it was pear and roasted chestnut, in 2008 its apple, sausage and cornbread. I once made a honey cake for a Rosh Hashanna dinner for friends and I overbeat the batter so it completely fell in the middle! I improvised at the last minute and made a trifle of honey cake cubes, cinnamon soft whipped cream and granny smith aples. It turned out great!