I'm Tara, I'm 20-something, married to Kevin and living in Rochester, NY with our pup, Harvey. I started cooking back in High School because I grew tired of the "same old, same old" my mom used to serve us (No offense mom). So I started trying out new recipes on Mom, Dad and my two sisters and realized how fun it could be. The Food Network was and still is my Cordon Bleu. Cooking has become a full on passion of mine and I love pushing the boundaries and trying new things. Corn Chowder, Home Made Mac n Cheese, Beef Stew, Lemon Rosemary Roasted Chicken, Chewy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies Growing up, it was making pimpkin pies on Thanksgiving and frosting sugar cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve. Now, its all about baking lots of cookies with Kevin around the Holidays. Escalloped Potatoes with Smoked Gouda, Christmas 2005 - I was ready to throw this dish of potatoes that I tediously labored over for at least an hour in the trash because I was convinced it was going to end up too watery and turn into slop... I let it bake longer than the recipe recommended and it came out beautifully and was a big hit! Beef Stew - Recipe from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cook Book - the combination of flavors in this stew with the beef, the rosemary, the red wine and tomato paste makes this stew so luxurious and mouthwatering good. I will never look for another recipe for Beef Stew ever again. Just thinking about it is making me hungry! And the leftovers, if there are any, are even better. A very soupy Pecan Pie at Thanksgiving 2006. I still can't figure out what went wrong and I'm afraid to make pecan pie again!