I cook because I love to create things and I (unfortunately) love to eat. My greatest joy is to prepare a dish or meal and watch people enjoy eating it. I'm really a self-taught cook but my greatest cooking influence was my father. He used to sit and peruse cookbooks for hours and had the knack of opening the pantry, pulling out the strangest ingredients and making a gourmet meal. He didn't cook often but when he did, it was a masterpiece. I started off baking at an early age and can remember making dozens upon dozens of Christmas cookies with my dad every year. We would painstakingly roll out, cut and ornately frost hundreds of sugar cookies. It's a tradition that I still follow. My husband and I both love highly seasoned food; not necessarily spicy but just well seasoned. I cook a lot of ethnic foods such as mexican, cajun, asian and italian. I am also a southern cooking girl having grown up in Texas and Louisiana. My Christmas cookies are still a big deal for me but I don't make as many as I used to. I am recently married so I really only cook for two, even on holidays. Our holiday dinners are small but still very traditional. The more complex a recipe, the more likely it is to turn out well for me. I am fortunate in that I can rise to the challenge of a multi-layer torte or complex dish. Unfortunately for me, the easier a recipe or item, the less likely I am to be able to make it. You can actually use my rice krispie treats for bricks in a pinch and I still haven't mastered mac and cheese in a box. Oh well, so much for convenience foods!