I'm a proud native of Los Angeles. I love the warm weather, the beaches, and the fact that my parents live close to my home. I work as a mortgage broker and also own a business which keeps me very busy. I enjoy spending my free time with my family and my boyfriend who samples all my cooking. My loved ones are all picky eaters but seem to "gobble up" all that I create.... thanks to the help of AllRecipes.com Thank you for the wonderful website that allows me to participate so that I could continue to improve my cooking skils. I love cooking vegetarian and even vegan meals. I also love cooking different ethnic foods and browsing through ethnic markets. One of my favorites is Jewish (Eastern European) foods. My mother is not a very good cook (I hope she is not reading this..lol). So most of my cooking triumphs were either recipes passed to me by friends or by my "trial and error" experiences. I successfully made the most delicious carrot cake ever, modesty aside *smile*. I shredded fresh carrots by hand and made the tastiest cream cheese frosting. The cake was several layers tall and was garnished with "carrot shaped" frosting. It was the hit of the party and everyone thought it was purchased from a bakery!! I once tried to make a coffee cake. I was disappointed when the cake did not rise properly and the result was a flat, rubbery slab. When reviewing what I did wrong, I realized that I used corn starch instead of baking powder (the containers looked similar and were made by the same company). *sigh*