I live in Northern California with my husband. I'm veggie (I do eat some fish) and he's meatie. This creates quite a challange to cook healthy meals that please both of us. We both love a wide variety of cultural food and enjoy trying new restaurants. I love to bake and make fun cookies, cakes, cupcakes, etc. I also enojoy anything Italian or Asian. I'm not good at pie crusts however... You can read the story under 'my cooking tragedies'. My very favorite family tradition is Grandma's Icebox Lemon pie. It is heavenly, so bad for you, and is a must at every family gathering. It's not quite a lemon meraingue, but similar and MUCH better. My sister and I would go every year at Thanksgiving and Christmas to Grandma's house to help her make the pies. We usually had to make 2-3 of the lemons because they were sure to disappear very quickly. Chicken. I think I finally figured out how to cook a chicken breast without it being raw in the middle or over-cooked. I'm veggie and haven't much meat experience... One Thanksgiving about 4 or so years ago, I decided to take the pies as my contribution. I made a pumpkin with cornmeal crust, mincemeat, 2 lemons, and an apple. I'd always helped make pies before, yet never done them entirely myself. The problem was with the crust. I kept messing them up royally! I ended up making - literally - double the crusts. For every one crust I made, I messed up another. They turned out okay in the end, but I haven't touched pie crust from that day forward. My sister has the magical touch so we make pies together... She does the crust, I do the filling!