I was born in NY and raised in NJ and have always loved cooking and baking for family and friends. I grew up around friends of so many different nationalities so I have recipes of all kinds that I love to cook. My favorite food of all is Italian. I also lived in California for 13 years so I also enjoy Mexican food. But I love trying new foods and learning to cook my own versions of them at home. I try and take fattening versions of certain foods and create healthier (but tastier) versions of them. My first creation was a Turkey Pot Pie that I modified and it's actually quite wonderful! I miss all the great foods from the east coast, so again, I try to duplicate certain things here in Arkansas. It's also hard being landlocked and not having a large variety of fresh seafood available at the grocery stores. Catfish and frog legs do not qualify as seafood as far as I am concerned! I do try and cook healthy foods on a day-to-day basis, but when it comes to holidays, I like to stick to traditional foods and not do anything too weird. Perfecting pizza! Living in Arkansas has been hard because I am not a fan of Southern food (and the pizza here is terrible) so I am working at perfecting Italian food (even though I am not Italian). I'd also like to bake versions of some of the wonderful pastries from the Greek and Italian bakeries in Astoria, NY where I was born. i've been lucky so far to not have any real disaster but when I first got married five years ago, my husband wanted a "healthy" Thanksgiving dinner. No stuffing, brown rice instead of mashed potatoes,no gravy (that is a tragedy in itself)...my turkey didn't roast right, the whole dinner was boring and untraditional. Needless to say I've never made a "healthy" Thanksgiving dinner again! But so far there have been no major tragedies in the kitchen (fires, etc...)!