My hobbies other than cooking include vegetable gardening, home improvements (OK, not if I could affor to pay someone else to do that!), music, and spending time with my family, boyfriend, dog, and two cats. I first started cooking on a regular basis when I was about 14 and stuck out at our country home with nothing better to do. I've become more serious about my cooking in the past five years or so. I love to cook anything that will be enjoyed. I recently made Christmas dinner for my boyfriend and his parents, and it was a big hit. For day-to-day cooking, I like to make vegetable stews, roast chicken, egg dishes, and stir frys or curries. For holidays or special occasions, I love to try out new recipes, ingredients and techniques to further my cooking skills. I have fond memories of helping my aunt make the sugar cookies and cranberry bread each year for Christmas. When I was in high school, I would make Swedish bread, lasagnas, and pasta salads, which were big hits with my older brother and his friends - so they let me hang out with them. ;) A couple years ago, my mom gave me a really nice fondue pot. I attended Thanksgiving at a big potluck style affair in an old barn and brought the pot and made a fondue with wildmushrooms, blue cheese, brie and gorgonzola, and served bread cubes, apple, pear, carrots and celery for dipping. Everyone raved about it, and about how long it had been since they'd seen a fondue pot! I once seasoned some chicken breasts with something called "Indian Seasoning", and thought curry powder would go well with it. It turned out I was Oh so wrong.