I grew up cooking with my mom. She had me in the kitchen with her when I was very young and I've loved to cook ever since. I joined the Coast Guard over 2 years ago and am thankful for everything I've learned over the years about cooking because I see a lot of guys my age and wonder how they survive on Ramen Noodles and Easy Mac. I'm looking forward to retiring from the Coast Guard in about 18 years and hopefully attending a culinary arts school so I can further my cooking abilities. I really like Mexican and Italian dishes. I love to experiment with food. I end up making a lot of meals off the top of my head. I was raised in the South so I've always been a fan of big flavors and bold spices. Very wide variety of foods. We hardly ever ate turkey for Thanksgiving. I loved not having the same ol' thing every year. Nothing out of the ordinary... Successful meals for friends and family; stuff like that. Too many to count but I think that if you can learn from a mistake it's never a "tragedy".