I'm Amanda. I live in Okinawa, Japan on the Air Force base. My husband and I are here for a three year tour. I love to cook and bake (obviously), and I am *so* thankful that my kitchen has a TON of counter space. I'm a beginner with cooking, still getting the hang of things, but I love experimenting. I prefer cooking with fresh, local, preferably organic foods if I can get my hands on some, but if not I'll still cook and bake and cook and bake anyway! Lately I've been fixing up a lot of Asain dishes and trying out new dessert recipes. My interests change a lot though, so in a week I may be trying home baked bread recipes. Who knows? Haha! (Actually, home baked bread does sound good :D) My family will make the best breakfast casseroles and stratas for Christmas brunch. Once, I made a batch of muffins that I felt disappointed with. I felt the recipe was too bland and wasn't sweet enough. The next day, a couple of friends stopped by and tried the muffins. One of my friends immediately exclaimed that the muffins were "amazing" while the other friend told me that I had a "gift" with baking. After that the muffins didn't taste so bad to me either :) There were many, many times when I was younger that I would forget to put the sugar in cakes and other desserts. Oops! :) After a few nightmares, I've gotten good at remembering. Haha!