I live on beautiful Vancouver Island with my fiance. I'm pretty sure my cooking skills have something to do with his affection for me :) I work as a researcher for the provincial government, and in my spare time I like to trail run, garden and socialize. Except for cooking, it's hard to keep me indoors! Generally, I try to cook according to what is in season, and so have discovered delicious vegetables I would otherwise never have tried. I planted my first vegetable garden this year, and I've been buying local, organic produce for a while now: makes a huge difference in freshness and taste. In the summer, I love to BBQ and rarely cook a meal inside. I adore a rare steak, crisp salad and cold beer on hot sunny days. In the winter, I love making soup, hearty casseroles, and plenty of baked goods. If there's cheese involved, even better. Every Christmas Eve, my Mom served her delicious tortiere, a French-Canadian pork pie we always looked forward to devouring. She is an all-around fabulous cook. And on weekend mornings, Dad's breakfasts were divine; no one does eggs easy-over, fried potatoes, and "floppy" bacon like he can. I make a darned fine pie, if I do say so myself :) My cooking snafus usually involve poor timing, where the vegetables are done but not the roast, that kind of thing. My first Thanksgiving dinner would have been an utter disaster without my Mom acting as project manager. But I've also dropped, burned, undercooked, and over-seasoned various meals across the years--I have a hard time cooking and talking simultaneously, ha ha. But no memorable or out-of-the-ordinary kitchen tragedies, thank goodness!