I just love to cook! Most people I know find it a chore to cook, but I find it to be very relaxing and I feel most creative. I started cooking as a young girl and owe it all to my mom who got my into the kitchen to help when I was a child. I went from decorating Christmas cookies to egging and breading the eggplant for Parm in no time. My mom never measured anything, so I learned a lot that way and when friends ask for certain recipes, its hard to give exacts. I love to feed people, it makes me happy when my family and friends rave over something I have made or ask for the recipe. The satisfaction is great. I hope my 2 daughters will share the same passion as I do. I love to both cook and bake. I feel I have a lot of experience in Italian cooking because of my backround, but I also love to make Mexican and Asian influenced dishes. I also love to make casseroles, soups, stews and crockpot recipes in the fall and winter. Watch out around the holidays...its all about the cookies!!! It's not Christmas unless the whole family is gathering at my parents house. The fire is always going, the holiday music playing, and a ton of food to eat. My mom, sister, and I make lots of different appys to start, followed by the lasagna, spiral ham, antipasto and cheesecake and bread pudding. So much food, yet so much fun to prepare and eat! My eggplant parm is always requested at family functions. At work a lot of my co-workers request my baked goods. And if I do say so myself, I make a mean crab cake and a great bowl of chili! Aside from the occasional batch of overdone cookies or overdone meat on the grill, I really cant think of a real mess up. I do wish though that I could attempt to make homemade bread and pie crust without chickening out and bying the pre-made....that would be a triumph!