I love anything fiddly. And baking. I like strong flavors and traditional vegetarian meals. And baking. I eat all meat except chicken (don't ask), but I am not a meat-and-potatoes cook unless I'm dating you. I love salads full of different colors and textures. I never use a crockpot or microwave. Very few! The most pervasive is rice--grew up in the Low Country, so rice (and we ain't talking Minute Sacrilege) is my default starch. I'm trying to learn to love brown rice, but it's hard for me. I've my mom's Thanksgiving dinner, which is also her Christmas dinner, but she hates baking and only likes holiday cooking. I drove her crazy growing up because I got the cooking-baking gene from my grandma (thanks, Grandma, for teaching me what you knew!). But it means I get to make my own traditions, and there's nothing wrong with that! All my friends ask me to bake for them. I don't think I'm a great cook because I use recipes, but my friends love my cooking. Probably epicurious.com's lemon pistachio crunch cake, which I did in a day, is my single most beautiful achievement--everyone thought I was a pastry chef. The German chocolate cake that I left the buttermilk out of and had to start from scratch on; the St. Lucia Buns meant to impress that burned, and I scraped the bottoms like toast b/c I just couldn't throw them out.