I like to make stuff. Anything. Food, clothes, furniture... I generally like things simple and classic. From 100% Hand-woven Indian Silk, to a 1"x14" plank of Michigan Cherry wood, to home grown heirloom tomatoes, quality ingredients are to be respected. I also believe in resourcefullness. Scraps, left-overs, bargain buys, I routinely cook from the back of my cabinets - sometimes more successfully than other times. :D Steak. Chicken Bacon. Cooking an heirloom recipe for coffee cake and stollen. We also decorate vanilla wafers with candy to make turkeys at Thanksgiving. My neice and I always try to make something when we're together. I've also started a new tradition of agitating my recipe-following mom with my maverick-improvising style. :D Hee-hee! I just learned how to REALLY make pan fried chicken with soul. I learned from my Italian friend how to make a true, killer red pasta sauce, and my hubby, raised on Prego, would rather have Prego. On the bright side, it takes a lot less time and mess to crack open a jar of Prego, than it is to simmer those tomatoes.