I love to cook. My mother was a caterer for over 30 years and my father a resturaunt manager. I too have worked in the food biz on and off for 20 years. Now I run my own video production company which doesnt leave much time for gourmet cooking but I have learned to work smarter and faster in the kitchen! I enjoy making Asian and Italian dishes and baking cookies when I can find the time. My family loves to throw holiday parties and we always do a huge spread of heavy hors d'ouvres....at least 15 to 20 different items. My mother, sister and girlfriends join in the preparation and everyone loves our food! Ahhh...the first cheesecake I ever made. I had cut out this beautiful color magazine recipe for a gourmet white chocolate rasberry cheesecake and I carried this page around for 15 years but didnt have the courage to try it. Last year I broke down, bought a springform pan and made the cheesecake. It was an unblemished marvel! My motto...never be afraid to try something new! I am really good at cookies but not long ago I made a batch of apple, cinnamon, ginger cookies from a recipe that called for apple juice and chopped raw apples. They completly fell apart and actually didnt even cook all the way....but boy they smelled good. I still dont know what went wrong and evewn worse I was making them for a baby shower only 2 hours in advance....I had to buy something from the grocery store to make up for it... Ugh!!!