I grew up in Hong Kong where my parents were teachers. It was during high school that I took a week long Asian cooking class and got hooked on cooking! I was an elementary school teacher until this fall when I "retired" to stay home with my 3 year old daughter! Our family has recently moved to Utah and we are enjoying exploring all the great hiking, camping, and cycling the state has to offer. (Which is good because, now that I am home full time, I tend to cook a lot more than I used to!!) Anything and everything. One of my favorite family traditions is something we started in the last five years. As a tribute to my grandma's New Orleans roots, we now make Crab Imperial for Christmas dinner (from my grandparent's favorite restaurant, Commander's Palace). And bread pudding with whiskey sauce for dessert! In college I had some friends that got together once a week and made dinner together. We were living in Arizona and thought we should embrace the southwest one night by making an entire meal out of cacti! We made cactus fries, Nopale Leaves stuffed with Machacca, and Prickly Pear Margaritas...all of it from scratch. We had a blast! / Another success was cooking for 35 people for my best friend's wedding shower and getting rave reviews and requests for the recipes. / The ladybug cake I made for my daughter's first birthday. I was very proud of the fact that it not only looked cute, it was very yummy! I can't stand those cakes that look amazing but taste like glue. The point of cake is to enjoy eating it, right? When my best friend and I were in middle school we tried to make "See's Candy Suckers" and set the fire alarm off. With the same friend, sophmore year of highschool, we made the most sad and pathetic gingerbread house you ever saw! I think it was falling apart before we even attempted to put it together. When it was "finished" we were crying from laughing so hard at how bad it was! Two years ago, as a tribute to that memory, she bought me a gingerbread house kit and we put that together with much greater success.