I'm 31 years old, married with a 10 year old son. I used to cater, professionally, but now I work as a "sniffer/taster" at a flavor and fragrance factory. My interests (besides food, and cooking) are history, theology, reading, writing,etc. I read Tarot cards semi professionally, am an avid gamer, and I love LOVE to cook. Reading about food, and cooking wonderful things for people I love, is a huge hobby of mine. My favorite cuisines are southeast Asian, and Mediterranian. I love making light, healthy meals, loaded with fresh veggies, little meat, and complex flavors. My all time favorite meal to prepare is Green Curry, Pad Thai, Chicken Lemongrass soup, rice, and a coconut pudding, for dessert. I also love making homemade noodles, smoking huge hunks of meat, experimenting with slow foods, like stews from all different cultures, and 'street foods' fancied up. Also, lately, I've been cooking all over the Caribbean. I love food from where the sun shines strong. I come from a string of horrible cooks, and people who generally wenre't interested in food, and eating. All of our little family's traditions, we started ourselves. Apple picking the second weekend of October, pies, sauce, butter, dumplings etc, that follow. Our Thanksgiving quirk of having 4 different kinds of cranberries on the table, for 4 different picky eaters. (canned, fresh whole berry, a chutney recipe from this site, and a raw orange cranberry relish) Prime rib for Christmas dinner. Barbecue season is our favorite, we love trying out barbecue and grilled foods from other cultures. Basic stuff! I catered my own wedding reception, for 125 people. That was a pretty big deal. I've been known to host legendary barbecues, that people talk about for years after. Smaller scale triumphs, are when I finally perfected the pancake, when the family would rather stay in, on a Saturday morning for my pancakes than go out...yeah :) Learning how to cook over an open campfire, actually managing to turn out good Dutch oven baked goods, as well as entrees. Turning out the perfect, meltingly tender right down to the bone smoked pork shoulder, with homemade barecue sauce. Finally perfecting my own signature jerk paste. I've had many... My recurring tragedy is rice. I can't make sushi rice, or sticky short grained rice to save my life. Love my rice cooker. There's so many...all the fried chicken mishaps, the fallen cakes, boiled over, scorched soups. All in the process of learning, right?