I've been cooking ever since I was a little kid. I remember my Dad teaching me how to make homemade spaghetti sauce when I was real young. I think that's when I got hooked on cooking and have been doing it ever since. I enjoy cooking, grilling, and baking, among my many other hobbies. I always enjoy having friends and family over to entertain with my cooking and my husband definitely doesn't mind either as he enjoys eating my creations! Italian spaghetti sauce, stews and soups, side dishes and casseroles, cakes and pastries, appetizers and dips. Since 2000 when my husband and I purchased our home I took over cooking the family Thanksgiving Dinner and look forward to it each year. I fix the entire dinner on my own from appetizer to main course to all of the desserts. I add a little fun to it before hand by creating and sending out "funny" turkey invites. Aside from the traditional fixings of the holiday dinner, there are three dishes that are ALWAYS served along with them, regardless of who is cooking - rutabagas for me and my Mom as we're the only ones that will eat them, and lasagna and sausage and peppers for my Dad as he is Italian and doesn't like turkey. The holiday season is the time of year I love the most! I would have to say it would be successfully cooking my first Thanksgiving dinner on my own for about 18 - 20 people. Everything came out great. The only flaw was a few timing issues and we ended up eating a little later than planned, but it was worth the wait! My parents came over one night for dinner and brought with them 2 beautiful racks of baby back ribs. I seasoned them, fired up the grill, and began slow cooking them. After a few hours of slow cooking on the grill they were almost done - they looked and smelled delicious and were tender. I then basted them with BBQ sauce and went in the house for just a moment to finish off one of the side dishes. That was all it took because the next thing I knew the grill had caught on fire! We got the fire out but the results were a disaster - the ribs were almost completely charred and ruined, so bad in fact some of bones were completely incinerated! There was maybe about half of each rack that was left that was even close to edible, so each of us only got about a quarter of the rack for dinner. We laugh about it now, but it was so embarrassing at the time.