I have been baking since I was 12 years old. I have created many a recipe and love experimenting with new dishes. I could stay in the kitchen all day and find it relaxing. I have taken a classic stollen recipe and turned it into another recipe of my own creation, and everyone in my family and at work, raved about it. Cooking & Baking is the love of my life! I love to cook all kinds of ethnic dishes especially Indian and Moroccan. I can all of my own spaghetti sauces, soups, & stews and make all kinds of pickles from any kind of vegetable imaginable. My grandmother died when I was 15, and she was an excellent baker, and I followed in her footsteps. She used to make these fried chocolate ravioli's at Christmas time that we couldn't wait to sink our teeth into. Many years have passed since we had these, so one day I decided to try and recreate the recipe, just by remembering their delicious taste. It took many batches before I succeeded, and finally I created the recipe. Grandma would have been proud of me! That Christmas, I did not tell anyone what I did, so when it was time for dessert, I placed the Fried Chocolate Ravioli on the table and everyone's eyes opened wide and you could have heard a pin drop. It was worth it to see the expression on their faces when they bit into the ravioli's, with their eyes closed and bringing them back in time.... I created an Orange Cheesecake that was out of this world. Every holiday I create a different flavor cheesecake that no one knows what it will be until dessert time. The 2nd favorite was my Almond Joy cheesecake, not made with the candy, but with my own secret ingredients.... One time when I was just learning to bake, I tried to make a gingerbread house, but didn't know about royal icing, and I was trying to use commercial made icing to hold the house together. For hours I worked on this house and I got the walls to stick, but every time I put the roof on which was made out of pure chocolate, the whole house would collapse. After many hours of hard work, trying to create the gingerbread house from scratch, I took the whole thing and threw it in the garbage. It wasn't until I got my first cookbook that I found out about royal icing. I still laugh about it to this day.....