I have been cooking since I was in 6th grade and my stay at home mom went back to work. Her best advice when I asked what she waned me to make was "use your imagination". Now when my family says, "there's nothing to eat", I can go into the kitchen and make a full dinner, large snack or whatever they need. They call it majeek (a fancy way of saying magic). Cooking has become a family affair with my three children now learning to be 'imaginative'. Seven years ago I married a Filipino man who missed the food he grew up with. I was dedicated to bring as many traditional Filipino dishes to our table as possible. Little did I know that in my quest I would fall in love with this cuisine. Now my favorite dishes are all things I learned through this journey. I also love to southern cooking. Born in Texas to Texas parents there is also something delicious in the kitchen whether BBQ Brisket or pecan pie or sour cream chicken enchiladas, I always am prepared for company. On of my favorite traditions is for the night we set up our Christmas tree. Every year we have a pasta dish seasoned with LOTS of chili powder called slumgullion. This is served with a lettuce and almond salad and fresh baked butterhorn dinner rolls. After the tree is all decorated we sit back and enjoy the lights while drinking home made hot cocoa and my grandmothers best brownie recipe. I think the thing I am most proud of is a Filipino Pineapple Pie. My husband would talk of this pie his father used to make in the Philipines. He had never really watched him make it but described it in foggy detail (it had a lattice crust, it was really delicious, etc). Since his father passed away and his mother does not cook I had nothing to go on as to the ingredients. I tried many pineapple pie recipes from the Internet only to have him take one bite and say, "This isn't it." Each time he would remember a little more, it had tapioca, he used brown sugar. After about 6 months and countless pies, I served him the latest experiment. He took one bite and closed his eyes in bliss. I knew I had the perfect recipe. This is now a regular dessert in our home and a special treat from my husband's birthday each year. One day when making my favorite potatoe cheese soup recipe I got side tracked burned the garlic. My husband told me it really wasn't burned that bad and I should finish the soup. So I scraped most of the burnt garlic out. After the soup was made I thought maybe I should add a little more garlic since I scaped most of it out. Just my luck I had used the last of the fresh garlic. I looked on my spice rack and found a bottle of garlic garlic (a dried minced garlic product). As I sprinkled a little in the soup the cap fell off of the jar and about a 1/4 cup fell into the soup. I just started to cry, the soup was completely ruined. My husband the wonderful man he is still scooped him a big bowl of soup and started eating. I couldn't believe it was edible. I took a bowl myself and took one bite. I was NOT edible, my husband was just trying to save my feelings. I took our bowls and threw the soup down the drain and took us all out for dinner!