When I was a child I learned to bake at my Grandma's side. She was an excellent baker. She would start baking Christmas cookies at Thanksgiving. Everyone in her sphere received a HUGE plate of assorted Christmas cookies. Whenever I asked her if we could bake something she would bake with me. She was a great influence on me. I love to cook. It is my creative outlet. I would like to take my cooking to the next step and begin to create my own recipes and/or attend a professional cooking school. I also dream of learning how to professionally decorate cakes. I love to cook meals that are quick, easy, tasty and nutritious. I also love to bake. The cabinet over my stove is stuffed with recipes that I want to try out. I hope I never have a stove top fire or the whole place will go up! I don't really have any family cooking traditions except the ones I have created. My Mom did not really know how to cook. My Grandmother was a good cook but it was simple roasted meats - extremely well done. My cooking traditions include cooking Beef Bourguignon for BF twice a year - on his BD and on Valentine's day. Also I cook Julia Child's "coq a vin" at least once a year. It has about 6 ingredients in it and it is quick & easy to prepare and so delicious! During the summer I love to buy fruit from the farmer's market and make pies & crisps. I made chocolate pudding from scratch and my BF kept asking me, "Whose pudding is this?" I kept saying, "Mine". He could not believe I had made it from scratch! And the time he wanted cocoa but lost his instant cocoa mix. So I made him cocoa from scratch with milk, sugar & cocoa. Once I was cooking a "Merlot/shallot sauce" for a tenderloin. Only I accidentally bought SCALLIONS instead of SHALLOTS! I could not figure out why my sauce wouldn't thicken! It is still a big joke at my house! A more serious tragedy was the time I attempted to make paczki for Paczki Day. What kind of Polish girl am I if I can't make paczki? I must have killed the yeast b/c they turned out like lead hockey pucks. I never had the time (or courage) to try again and that was 20 years ago!