I live in Pittsburgh, with my beautiful Siamese, Vinnie. I like to cook for myself and others. And have a great boyfriend who appreciates every meal I make - no matter how simple or fancy. I admire Elsie Henderson a great deal. I dream of someday owning an Aga. I love to cook almost anything. Some baking too, but my cooking is stronger than my baking. And I've been getting into grilling quite a bit this summer. My family seems to have picked up every cooking tradition from every culture they can. And I love them all. We do the pork and sauerkraut for New Years. This year - I did it on my new grill - something new and something old together and it was great! And of course, corned beef and cabbage for St. Patty's - my mom always did it, with tinned beef - for us kids growing up. And now I do it for my friend's before we go out for Pittsburgh's huge celebration. And I've moved up to fresh roasts - and converted my mom too. My uncle is the consummate tailgater and my family will tailgate for any event. Steeler's games, Pirate's games - even the football games at the small college my brother works at. Christmas comes with its own set of traditions. At my dad's house, it wouldn't be Christmas without what we call "the Western Pennsylvania Fire-hall wedding and funeral dinner buffet": fried chicken, ham, baked rigatoni and more. This past November 1, I was set to move into a small rental house, leaving behind my stove-less apartment (that’s another triumph – the meals I made there!) I volunteered to host Thanksgiving for my family. Due to a problem I didn't get moved until the 17th. Plenty of time, but I never tested the oven. It seemed fine on my walk through. The night before Thanksgiving, I started prepping some of the sides ahead of time. That is when I discovered the oven wouldn't get up to temp, just stayed in pre-heat mode. I called my mom in tears - I told her to come get the 17 pound turkey out of my fridge and that I was going to have a turkey lunch meat sandwich and a six-pack of Iron City for my Thanksgiving. She told me had the solution and she'd be at my house by 6 am (she lives over an hour from me) I stayed up late making sides in my toaster oven. She showed up with a 1950s Westinghouse roaster and we got the turkey going. Dinner was saved. My family asked if I would host again next year! My greatest cooking tragedy is probably when I caught my Coleman Roadtripper Grill on fire. I was making the Bacon Explosion, a ridiculous recipe my friends and I found on the internet. I was making it for the engagement party for a couple of friends of ours. We had all joked about it many times, so I thought it'd be the perfect surprise. It consists of bacon bits and BBQ sauce stuffed inside loose sausage, made into a log and wrapped in a mat made by weaving bacon together and topped with more BBQ sauce. It was winter, so I set the grill up in front of my house, on the cleared sidewalk. So, the whole neighborhood saw the spectacle. Including my landlord's brother - though he laughed it off as an early Super Bowl celebration. (My beloved Steelers were set to play in it the next week).Turns out I had failed to pull one of the side table out fully and it had caught fire. We were able to save the Bacon Explosion, finish it in the toaster oven. It was a huge hit at the party.