I am a stay at home mom of a baby girl and include cooking as one of my main hobbies. Because I am not able to get out too much, and eating is a necesity, it is a convenient outlet for my creative energies. I am proud to say that I am a self taught chef who never really learned to cook growing up with my single father. I wanted to be able to save money on groceries while, at the same time, provide healthy and diverse dishes so I started searching the sale stacks of cook books at the book store. I now have quite a collection of books on cusine spanning the globe and my husband is very gratefull. I love cooking exotic dishes from other countries. In my repitior I include shrimp/tofu/chicken curry, Negima (japanese beef rolls), spicy yougurt marinated chicken, broiled fish with north african spice mixtures and Bestelles de la Viande (a north african meat filled pastry). Usually, the easier (and cheaper) the better but I don't mind putting a little work into a dish for company or a special occasion. Among what I consider to be my triumphs would be "mastering" curry powder and learning how to use turmeric. I've learned that egg roll wrappers will stick together before they are cooked if you stack them. I ended up with over half of my meat filled pastries having holes in them which, needless to say, did not go so well when I decided to deep fry them anyway.