I've been an expat for 2 1/2 years now, and although I sometimes have trouble getting the ingredients I need (how can a country with such a healthy relationship to baked goods not sell real vanilla extract?!), I love making traditional American favorites for my friends here. I like being able to show the Germans that American food indeed does not stop at hamburgers and fries. Some things that have gone over well here are bread and onion stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy, tuna-noodle casserole, and peanut butter cookies. I also LOVE to bake anything and everything. The more difficult, the better! Although no one in my family is Italian, my mom still knows how to make a mean bolognese, the recipe for which she inherited from her own mother. And while for most people, Thanksgiving is the best holiday foodwise, I also look forward to roast beef and Yorkshire pudding at Christmas. Anyone who makes fun of English food has obviously never had Yorkshire pudding with roast beef gravy. Yum! I've never been so proud as the first time I made pumpkin pie from a whole pumpkin. I've improved the recipe over subsequent years, but I was never so happy as the moment my pie came out of the oven and looked the way pumpkin pie should. The first (and only!) time I cooked for my boyfriend's family, I committed the carnal sin of German cuisine: I made the meat too dry! It was terribly embarrassing for me and even after 2 years I haven't quite gotten over it.