I'm a twenty-something living in the city of Chicago. Currently, I am a full time student and work part time so cooking at home once I moved on my own was a good way to save money. Over the past years I have mastered many dishes and have proven to have a flare for all things culinary (which my grandma now claims in is my genes from our Polish and Italian heritage). Anything that can be served family style! I love cooking for an army and having lots of friends or family members over and filling up great big bowls and plates of food, uncorking some wine and having a good time. Trying new things at the holidays - all of my family has grown weary of the norm that gets served from year to year and LOVE when I spice things up a bit. So, I guess the only tradition now is change! I was experimenting with dozens of Christmas cookie recipes one year and decided to unlease them on the guys at work - every thing I had baked (which took around 7 hours total) was gone in 30 minutes!!! I guess they liked them! When I cooked my very first independant Thanksgiving dinner two years ago, I couldn't figure out why some of the turkey wasn't cooking correctly. I had purchaced a "half turkey" type of deal because I was only cooking for three people and didn't think that it had the gizzards or neck... well I did... and I obviously hadn't taken them out which explained why the top of the turkey wasn't cooking correctly!!! My grandma later said, "Welcome to the wonderful world of cooking. That was your initiation."