I'm a mom of a 6th and 4th grader and the life partner of 26 years to the most wonderful woman in the world!!! I've recently had to leave my very physically taxing job in physical therapy at a hospital, to recover from my own knee replacement and subsequent back surgery. Since that time, I've rekindled my love of cooking and have become addicted to this website. Anything grilled. Meat, meat, meat! Surprisingly too, baking, since I've found this website. Growing up, we started the tradition of serving many, many hors d'oeuvres in place of a full meal to celebrate Christmas eve. My mom, three sisters and I, would make 2-3 of our favorite hors d'oeuvres each and the family would feast on them the night before Santa came! We kept up on the tradition with my life partner and children until the Christmas that I ended up in the emergency room with "gastric issues" due to the excessive fat intake. Now we opt for a more "balanced" celebration. Carnitas!. I live in south Florida and have had great Cuban food and feel I've mastered the carnita with a slow cooker recipe from this website. My family will NOT let me live down the "Spaghetti Squash Incident" of 1996. It is this food fiasco that taught me the age old lesson of attempting a new dish with your closest family members before presenting it to "Guests". Apparently, one spaghetti squash will not feed a crowd of eight, no mater what the recipe says!