I am a somewhat new bride; my husband and I were married last June. Before I was married, I never cooked! The only thing I ever made was a grilled cheese. Now you can't keep me out of the kitchen! -Although I do try to find quick, delicious meals for throughout the week because of my schedule (graduate school keeps me busy:-) Thankfully, my husband eats anything- no matter what I set in front of him. He's easy to please! I love to bake anything and everything...from scratch. My friends think I'm crazy for doing so when "the boxed mix works just fine" Not so! I also love to bake bread- although I've never baked it using a bread machine. I've always done it the ol' fashioned way :-) My mom is an excellent cook so I have many memories and traditions that all revolve around the kitchen. One of my favorites is baking homemade crescent rolls as a kid. We only made them on special occasions, but I still remember the excitement I felt when I got to punch down the dough (and how impatient I was while waiting for that moment to arrive!). My most favorite recent triumphs are the compliments of my family. The women in my family are great cooks so to hear compliments from them is a blessing! Also- I finally learned how to make a good bowl of pasta. For some reason, it took me forever to learn how to get the noodles to cook evenly and thouroughly. I would stand over the noodles the entire time, hoping they would turn out (and honestly, most of the time they didn't!) But now, I am proud to say I am a pasta pro! Woo! I love Rachel Ray. She has some of the smartest ideas that can save a person a lot of time while cooking. One tip I always follow is to pop a lid on your water to make it boil faster. Just remember to pull the lid off as soon as it starts to bubble. Well, I thought I could transfer this idea to oil ( I was making chicken wings, and I was in a hurry for the oil to heat up). Not my smartest moment! I pulled the lid off and the oil shot up in flames! Oops! My husband definitely got a kick out of it! Needless to say, we ordered pizza that night!