I love food, simply put! Eating it, preparing it, serving it. I love the pleasure I get from it, and how happy it can make other people when I make something delicious. I've been trying my best to expand my palette and repertoire of cooking. Seems the more I learn, the more I want to explore with food. Recently I've sort of become obsessed with risotto! I can't believe how easy it is to make (compared to what people say) and what you get, it is worth the time and effort put in. Baking also ranks high on my list, creating beautiful, delicious sweets. Every Christmas I make gingerbread - not the rolled house kind, and not the people kind, but little buttons of soft gingerbread rolled in sugar. They've become a staple of my ability, and every year, everyone I know is demanding them! When we moved into our first house, I wanted to put on an extravaganza for it. Not only was there a chocolate fountian, but I pulled off cooking crostini, sweet and sour mushrooms, baba ghanouj, and hummus - and the best of all, I learned how to make potstickers that turned out better then anything I'd tasted! It was amazing. I was hired by a co-worker to make a cake for her son's first birthday one year, and she wanted it vanilla. Actually she wanted it shaped like a baseball, which didn't seem to hard. Unfortunately, my forte is not white icings, and it was a complete disaster! I felt horrible even giving it to her at all, but she insisted on paying me. The icing wasn't tasty, and it soaked the cake too. I would barely have eaten it, let alone sold it...I felt so horrible. I didn't want to make a cake for anyone for a long time.