I am a newly wed and I love cooking. One day my husband will finish grad school so I can be a housewife and cook all day! I love going out to restaurants and replicating the dish when I get home ... and also convincing my very traditional family to try my new concoctions. I love soups ... in the winter, most especially pumpkin soup! Everytime I make it people ask me for my recipe. I'm egyptian so my family holiday get-togethers are a bit different -- no turkey, mashed potatoes, and cranberries at our family functions. My favorites are roasted lamb, stuffed grape leaves, and ground meat goulash (made with puff pastry and lots of cinnamon.) I think my greatest triumph has been learning how to make Thai food at home. Thai food is indubitably the best God-given cuisine in the world (in my opinion of course :) Too many to name, but I would say they all come down to the same thing --- too much salt. I used to always overdo the salt and have recently decided my guests can add the salt themselves! This makes for much happier guests.