I am a native Californian who loves finding new recipes to try out on friends. I love to have buffet style dinner parties. I am always looking for great recipes where I can do most of the preparation in advance to makes for an easy, relaxed evening. Christmas pot lucks. Any dinner party where my guests are happy and leave full of good food! My very first "dinner party" in college where I tried to make a pasta dish and I put the pasta in a pot and just barely covered it with water, needless to say the water burned away and the pasta was ruined.