I'm a college nursing student here in New York who sometimes ((secretly)) wishes living in NYC is possible by staying at home and cooking for family and friends--while freelance writing whenever she gets a good flow for a story. Aside from cooking, I love reading, dancing, watching movies, and discovering the world around and within me! I love trying very different foods/recipes all the time--I believe it keeps a person well-rounded and open-minded. I love cooking good traditional family foods and dishes from other countries. I also love to bake---cookies, cobblers, cakes---you name it. I always try to make ordinary desserts come back alive with an unexpected kick. Our biggest tradition, aside from the passing on of amazing, tried-and-true recipes, is cooking together as much as possible, but especially on Thanksgiving. That's why it's my favorite holiday! Every year we assign ourselves a part of the meal, my Mother always tackles the turkey, keeping the outcomes exciting with what seems like an infinite list of ways to prepare it, and my little sister and I are left with so many possibilities! It's such an amazing feeling to create these wonderful dishes and share them to the family. I love love love it. I'm still getting compliment's on the Cranberry Spinach Salad I made for my family some time ago. It's become a regular part of our meals at home. And just recently I created this beautiful upside down chocolate cream cheese cake, which was also a hit. I have yet to redeem myself from this one: My ex boyfriend and I had been seeing each other for quite some time and one night while over at his parents' house I had the sudden urge to cook something sweet for them. Like a not-so-smart-overly-confident-person, I choose a rare little recipe I had found via the internet and began right away. The cake was fine, the frosting--a bit much, but the worst part: Their HUGE high-tech oven ((yes I blame the oven!!)) totally crispified the bottom of my wonderful chocolate cake. And what was worse was that the taste was very very odd..and I don't mean that in a good way. I couldn't back down as much as I wanted to throw that thing into the trash; it was already announced by my boyfriend that I had baked it...I was MORTIFIED while I sat at the table watching them eat the tops of their slices and giving me the "that was nice of you" nonsense.