I'm a twenty-something graphic artist with very little time to cook during the week. I spend most of my free time trying out new recipes with my boyfriend, who is more than willing to be my guinea pig. I love baking: cakes, cookies, breads... I just love spending time with my stand mixer and my measuring spoons. I've also gotten into making casseroles -- I love having only one dish to wash at the end of the meal. Coming from a Filipino family, special occassions are marked with all-day cooking Olympics. Everyone would be put to work. In my family, you literally work for your dinner, whether it be stirring the stew every 15 minutes precisely, running to the grocery store for forgotten ingredients, or being part of the lumpia rolling line. My favorite part is getting to enjoy the fruits of my labor afterwards. I consider anything that would make my boyfriend grin and say "mmmm!!" a triumph. I'd say that my biggest are my "I'm sorry" cookies (thumbprint butter cookies filled with grandma's bushberry jam). I think that he still picks fights to this day just so I'd make him the cookies. It involved a pound of hamburger, a box of Hamburger Helper, and a small grease fire. Enough said.