I love food! My thoughts are consumed by what I'll be eating today, tomorrow and next week. I'm the primary cook at our house, and I love to peruse recipes, plan menus, and make grocery lists. My boyfriend and I are very busy taking care of toddler son, working and renovating our house. There's not a lot of time left over for leisurely meals anymore. I used to love extravagant dinners (actually, I still love extravagant dinners), but since I've had a baby I'm more interested in quick, easy meals that are still nutritious and delicious. I cook almost everything from scratch, and don't use a lot of convenience foods. The perfect meal to me is a good piece of meat (or fish or chicken), a salad, a vegetable and a starch. My family is from the south, and we eat seafood for our Christmas Day meal. I'm usually responsible for the crab cakes, which are one of my favorites. I am also the resident cake maker for all birthdays and holidays. I've learned to not be so literal when it comes to recipes. I'm more apt to substitute or do without items I don't have readily available. I feel it's helping me to be a better cook to be a little more loose in the kitchen. I love to cook for my dad, because he's such an excellent cook. Anytime I can impress him I feel like I've accomplished something. Once when I was melting chocolate I tried to improvise a double boiler from two pans - one fitted tightly on top of the other. I didn't realize the steam would build up so much pressure in the bottom pan, and it sounded like a bomb went off when the top pan hit the ceiling. Molten chocolate was everywhere. When I moved out of that apartment there was still chocolate on the kitchen ceiling!