Since I was a small child, I have had an interest in food. The earliest I could remember was watching Reading Rainbow when the host visited a cheese factory. I would always watch cooking shows and still do. Everything about food interests me; the appearance, taste, cooking, cultures, marketing. I am currently majoring in Food Marketing and when I graduate, I will enter a cullinary academy. If my boyfriend will eat it, I will cook it. I love to use slow-cookers. Also a very close person in my life has an eating disorder. This person is always counting calories and is always on a new diet. I enjoy cooking things for this person that they actually aren't gulity about eating. I make sure to use lots of foods rich in vitamins and nutrients so that each meal is worth something. My mother married into an Italian family. She is German by blood, but her mother-in-law turned her into an Italian cook. Growing up we would eat buttered noodles and parmesean pastina. My mother made sure to cook with lots of herbs, so that now I can identify the herbs in dishes that I am eating more easily. A favorite is Rosemary Chicken, which I have dr'd up a little bit. A certain cook show host taught me that you can take a recipe and make it your own. If you don't like peppers, take them out... if you would rather use pork over chicken, do it. I think that a lot of my triumphs were just tweeking the recipes into something that fits for me and my family. I am also getting good at the "little of this, little of that" method. You know how your mom never knows the measurments? I am turning into that! I set my stove on fire at an apartment I was living in. I was trying to brown beef cubes to make stew and I guess the oil got too hot. Anyway, I through my entire canister of flour on the flames and BOY DID THE HOUSE STINK! I also had electric stoves. But of course, I shouldn't just blame it on the stove. :)