My mom was always a wonderful cook and took pride in finding new recipes for the family. We rarely ate the same thing twice in one month. Being a mom myself, I want to keep on the "tradition" as well as encourage my daughter to be open minded. My mom and I now trade our new-found recipes and my daughter is one of the healthiest, least picky eaters I know. (I'm not kidding...she eats healthier than me...when it came time to find a birthday treat to share with her classmates, she suggested that we bring Grape TOMATOES. I had to advise against it because I don't know how many other 5 & 6 years olds would agree). My male roommate/daughter's godfather(we have a house and he rents a room) has gotten into the spirit and has learned to love cooking! My boyfriend just likes to enjoy the results. I wonder what I would have done if it wasn't for allrecipes.com!! Really, I like almost anything and everything...pasta in particular but I don't limit myself. I appreciate all sorts of new tastes. A few of my favorite recipes are Cajun Chicken Pasta, Beth's Spicy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, Chicken Honey Nut Stir-Fry, Paella and oh so much more...too numerous to count. My favorite ritual is Christmas Eve and Christmas morning...On Xmas eve we snack on some appetizer dishes while opening xmas presents around midnight by the light of Christmas lights and candles. On Xmas morning (when "santa" comes) we have a great brunch and open more presents. My fondest memories are of those moments. Actually, when I first found allrecipes.com, we were living off of Hamburger Helpers. I had limited knowledge on cooking and even some of my mom's tried and true recipes that I had mastered were becoming redundant. One night, I threw up my hands and said "I've had it!" and looked on the internet for easy recipes. Upon finding this site, I told myself..."hey, I can cook this!" and spent the entire night finding recipes...supper that night was put to the wayside and my boyfriend was forced to order in pizza because I was stuck to the computer. The next day, I went grocery shopping. After my first few sucessful recipes, my love for cooking has grown and I now consider myself a good cook. I can master most recipes and that in itself is a triumph...for which my family is very grateful! When I was in highschool, a friend and I had a craving for taco salad and we found a recipe that taught us how to make our own shells (you know, the crunchy ones that you fill with the salad stuff). While waiting for the grease to heat up to deepfry these "shells" we began cutting up the appropriate veggies. Well, we lost track of time talking and all the sudden, the thermometer flew out of the pot over our heads and we had a pot of fire! It took us a minute or two to find a cover that fit the pot to put out the fire but by that time, the house was filled with the worst-smelling smoke. The result: ONE BLACK POT and a very angry mother...we had to use our savings to replace the pot, it took a full 2 days for the smell to diminish and we never got to eat any taco salad...nor were we allowed to cook anything that required grease again!