I'm married to a woman sent from heaven. Together we have a combined family of 5 beautifully grown kids. I love to stay healthy with exercise & enjoy being outdoors. I work on enjoying life without being to serious. Cooking is a creative outlet and a great way of relaxing. foods that have passion mixed into the flavor. Meat dishes, Italian, mexican, asian, sauces, and BBQ are among my favorites. Sunday meat dinners are one of my favorite meals with all the side dishes and great flavors. My grandmother taught me to cook with passion. My Grandfathers restaurant had all the tradition of home cooking when I was growing up. I've had many great cooking teachers in my family...special thanks to my mom. Winning a chili contest with a recipe I almost didn't enter because I thought it was such junk. My wife and I tied for 2nd in the region for our salsa. I'm very happy with my red pasta sauce, and am close on a great BBQ sauce. I have a great brocolli salad recipe that I developed that's often requested. I love to open up the cupboard and create a masterpiece with whatever's available. If you can do that...it's a triumph! I've had many. I don't know where to start when it comes to baking. It's always a tragedy when a creation burns. Opening up the cupboard, excited to create a masterpiece from scratch and have it go terribly wrong where the dog doesn't even like it, that's a tragedy. One last tragedy...making something from scratch, having it be something you could actually launch a cooking show around, but not writing anything down or remembering the exact ingredients...very tragic.