I grew up in a family of cooking ladies. Every single holiday you can find all the ladies in the kitchen cooking some good, down home, southern cooking. My uncle first introduced me to other food besides fried chicken and lard biscuits and my life hasn't been the same since!! He is from California and makes a lot of international dishes that have inspired me to venture out of my comfort zone. I work full time and go to school, have two dogs and a husband so my life is super busy. Cooking is more or less my release from the stress of daily life. To me, food can bring people together like nothing else can. Give me a good glass of red wine and a perfectly cooked steak and I am one happy woman. I have recently started to bake which I love. I think the exact science of baking appeals to my OCD side :) I love anything that comes from the south; you can deep fry or put anything in a casserole and it will be good! Curry is one of my favorite things ever and you can customize it anyway you like. I always like to cook Asian or Latin inspired dishes, especially for entertaining. I think the slow cooker was the best invention ever! For Christmas my whole family gets together on Christmas day, all the aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. We have enough food for us all to bring three more guests and we will still have leftovers!! The first Christmas that I was married was the first time I brought something to the feast. I felt so proud watching people gobble up my dish (I don't even remember what it was now!) Christmas is now my favorite time to cook for the family because we all bring our best to the table. The first time I made a German Chocolate Cake from scratch took me three hours but it was PERFECT. So moist but still solid, and the icing was amazing. I made it for my husbands 30th birthday and I was pretty nervous. The whole thing was gone in one night. I was so proud and from then on have been hooked to baking. I was cooking a dinner for my husband one night when we were first married and I wanted it to be really special because he had been out of town for seven days. I got skirt steak and simmered it in taco sauce thinking I would make these super yummy steak burritos. Good Lord that steak tasted HORRIBLE!! It was truly like one of our animals had gotten sick and I tried to cook it up. I was so upset and my hubby tried so hard to eat it...after he almost got sick we called it a night and got some Chinese takeout!