I love to eat, I'm a stay at home mom living in one of the most expensive cities in Canada (and North America for that matter), so I had to learn how to cook WELL. Currently, cookies and Indian food. I grew up in Scandanavian-Minnesota where a tomato, salt and pepper were the predominant spices. SOMETIMES you'd use 1/2 a teaspoon of garlic powder, WATCH OUT! Since moving to Vancouver and being exposed to all of the ethnic foods (and loving them and not being able to afford to eat out as often as I'd like) I learned to cook! We can get anything here but the freshest, local ingredients are the best! However, my favourite FAMILY cooking traditions involve making Christmas Eve dinner and making homemade lefse (without the proper equipment! There may be a Scandanavian contingent down in Washington State, but not here in Vancouver...no one knows what lefse is here! Lefse CAN be made with a flour sack tea towel, an athletic sock, and a non-stick pan. Small lefse, yes...but definitely AWESOME! Lefse. Pie crust that kicks ass! I do a really good curry, and vietnamese salad rolls. One time I made asian cabbage rolls and it called for cilantro. 1/3 cup of chopped cilantro. Well, I minced it, and packed that little third cup...wow, it was wrecked. Cilantro overpowered the subtler flavour of shitake mushroom...NO FUN! I've since learned a little cilantro goes a long way.