high school math teacher. i value spending time with family and friends. one of my simple pleasures in life is to find new recipes and cook new dishes for my girlfriend and i. really enjoy baking salmon, just so healthy and tasty. pan-fried steak and a sweat potato always nice too. chili was very fun, just a great way to sit around, maybe do some work or just talk to friends and family while the chili is cooking away. long cook times are a sign of quality for chili. even though i've fallen off of this in recent years, the night before thanksgiving, my brother and i help my mom make the stuffing for the next day's meal. we will go through and methodically toast and dice 2 loaves of bread. there's a subtle science to dicing toast without crushing it. tomato cream chicken: this was the first recipe that required some grilling, baking, reducing of a sauce, blending, and boiling and it all turned out great. it was complicated and its something that i only read the recipe in order to make it. while pan frying a burger, the grease light on fire. very scary. once used a four cheese alfredo sauce for fettuccine alfredo, terrible just terrible...too many strong cheese flavors