My partner and I both work in the retail pharmacy industry in the Portland area having moved from Southern California, where we were both born and raised. While there was a lot to love about SoCal we have found Oregon to be a much better place to live and enjoy nature and have found that this is the best foodie world to be in! I love to cook most everything! My idea of heaven is to stop by the farmer's markets, the little out of the way specialty markets and farms and plan and put together a meal based on whatever I find. For dietary reasons, I tend to, and love to, cook Mediterranean and especially Italian. I have learned to enjoy meat as a part of a meal rather than the center of the meal. I'm getting more comfortable with preparing fish and, recently baking. Would the new standing mixer have anything to do with this? Now here in Oregon, with farms around the corner, canning and bottling fresh produce is a new mania! I really enjoy nosing around All Recipes.com! I enjoy trying the dishes that everyone has developed, and feel guilty when I add comments about what I have or would do differently with them, as I know creating the recipe is much harder than improving on it. So thanks to all those that have shared! "Putting up” bottles of fruit and vegetables was something that my Grandmother always did when I was a child, and now that is back in my life. I am involved in genealogy and in that area I have come across hers and my aunt's recipes which I am saving for all of my family. Collecting family recipes from all of my family is an on going project for me—these recipes are memories and a way of keeping all of these dear, departed family members with us and something that can and should be saved for the next generations. And it is makes for some darn fine eatin' too! Isn't this on going? My latest triumph—well let's call it a pleasant surprise—was bottling dilly beans for my best friend who used to live in Seattle and bemoaned not being able to find them in Southern California. She absolutely loved them and wants to know how they are made—found the recipe here, I might add. Problem is she lives in the high desert there and that is just not the best climate to bottle in! That makes me her sole supplier—so my triumph will now be a regular project summer project, and she has a good sized family, so there will be quite a few bottles to be made. Does anyone here have any connections with UPS? Well, isn't this ongoing too, when you are trying new things? One that stands out was when D and I spent our first year together and I tried to make corned beef hash for him the day after our first St. Patty's Day together. How hard could it be to make a hash I thought...bless his head he tried to eat it, but I couldn't bear to watch his face in that forced smile. Especially after I had a taste! The cats wouldn't touch it! I went and picked up some take-out Thai...I have since mastered the art...he is Irish, I had to...