I grew up in a family where all my aunts and my mom were known for their cooking. We were never allowed in the kitchen to 'help' except for cleanup! I guess I learned by watching and I love to watch The Food Network. I am a registered nurse and love to cook up things for my co-workers. My husband is from Tunisia so I have learned to cook something new! One of my favorite parts of my visits to Tunisia is being in the kitchens of my hostesses and learning their recipes. I love to make everything from scratch and especially love to knead bread. I say it is therapeutic! I also love Indian cooking and introduced my inlaws to Indian food on one of my trips there where I was the 'guest' cook one evening. I love to bake and give it all away. My favorite things to bake are anything that I can package up and stick on someone's porch or doorknob...such a nice surprise for them to come home to. I have to say that it has changed since I married. My favorite meal is cooking in the kitchen with my husband a good lamb couscous and serving it up in a beautiful hand-painted tagine that we bought on one of our trips to Tunisia. I cooked a full turkey dinner at the age of 17 and it got raves. I have to say also having my husband's friends over to dinner and having them tell me that my tunisian dishes remind them of home and 'just like my mom makes'. Now that is a compliment! I had also always wanted to make Gnocchi but was too afraid because my Italian friends would refer to these as 'sinkers'. Glad to say that perhaps it was a bit of beginner's luck but tried an gnocchi recipe on here and they were perfect! Light and airy and would have floated away! cream puffs. I tried this at the age of 17 with my cousin and I bet we went through a dozen eggs and never got past the first stage...not one puff did we enjoy!