I grew up loving to bake and cook, but really never had a good, cook-friendly kitchen to cook in until we moved into our house a few years ago. Now I'm always shooing my bf out of the way so I can make something else. I'm a bit of an off the wall cook--I like to experiment and try new things, but I have a pretty good idea of what I do and don't like, and I'll sub if I don't have the ingredients. I hate making extra trips to the store! Plus, with the bf's Costco obsession it makes more sense to sub things! I love the reviews on here--let's me record things to remind me what I've done. I tend not to read recipes (not really on purpose, I just have a short attention span) and usually do my own little twist. I will rate things 5*s if I loved it and would make it again without changes, 4*s if I would make it again with changes, and 3*s if I would not make it again unless I changed it a lot. Baking is probably my favorite. I like cookies and sweet breads (like banana bread) and anything I can make with the bread machine. I do Christmas cookie tins every year and this year started ahead of time and put the cookies in the freezer. I don't even know how many I made, but I still have frozen cookies even after Christmas has come and gone! I like making bagels and other shaped breads. I like to cook best on the weekends when I am not tired and have the time, so I make a lot of make ahead meals and freeze them. Especially useful since my bf's favorite place to shop is Costco so I often end up cooking a ton of food and it's just the two of us! So the freezer is my best friend! My mom made homemade pizza when we were little and I loved it! She also made a great shepherd's pie. To this day it's the only shepherd's pie I'll eat. Not a cooking tradition, but food tradition: Root Beer Floats on the 4th of July. Love them! Bf and I go to his parents' house for either Christmas or Thanksgiving, and for the other holiday we've started our own holiday dinner. He loves making a huge turkey and eating it the rest of the week! A banana bread recipe my mother makes that I modified with fantastic success. Almost anything I bring to work. My coworkers are ridiculously easy to please. My AR friends walked me through making rice and it turned out so well! Yippee! Can now cook rice. Now for those cookie cutouts . . . .LOL! Rice. I can't cook it to save my life. I've also made spinach tortillas that looked wonderful but I don't know if they tasted wonderful because the dog got to them, smashed the plate, and spread the tortillas all over the house. So I'll have to try them again. I once made biscuits and forgot the baking soda. A tragedy, indeed!