My husband and I are happily married for one year and enjoying life with our friends in the D.C. area. I enjoying cooking and baking in my free time, and I typically test all my new foods on our gamer group. They're honest and help me improve my recipes to make them all-around favorites. My mother is Iranian and I grew up on platters of rice and kabob. I have yet to be able to cook Middle Eastern food like my mom, but I'm working on it. Andrew's family, though American, mostly makes great all-around favorites with their own twist. They have ribs for Thanksgiving, Indian for Christmas, and so many yummy soups and sandwiches whenever I go over. I'm learning the soup business from my MIL. We took the pea soup recipe from the LONDON cookbook intending to take a large vat of warming soup over to a friend's house for dinner. We followed the directions perfectly, soaking the split peas and blending the other vegetables. My husband started on the soup while I was at work, and I came home to find that the recipe was terribly bland! My husband despaired that we would have to take over the "pea water" for dinner. I rushed to our spice cabinet and with the help of minced garlic, onion salt, white pepper and turmeric made a savory broth that went fantastic the loaf of french bread we grabbed on our way over.