I am a writer, editor and proofreader who has been self-employed since 2001. Cooking is one of my favorite pasttimes! I'm better at complete meals and appetizers than desserts. Some of my specialties are chicken parmiagiana, macaroni and cheese, cheese puffs, spanakopita, and sweet potato pie. Every Christmas we bake lemon pound cakes, nut-and-raisin pound cakes, sweet potato and coconut pies. :) My grandfather was the one who primarily taught me to cook. He taught me to bake cakes, pies , and banana pudding from scratch. He also taught me little tricks like how to make gravy from scratch, and from him I learned to appreciate fresh vegetables from the garden (and how to grow them!). I learned to make curry chicken and made a shortcut lasagna (used frozen ravioli instead of lasagna noodles) that turned out great! I also made cornbread from scratch (I used a recipe from Food + Wine magazine, with much success) and cole slaw from scratch. I tried to bake bread from scratch, but the bread came out hard as a rock (maybe I had a bad batch of yeast?). I also tried to make a rum cake, but it didn't rise properly.