I am a social worker working full-time and going to school to get my masters. I have been trying new recipes on my boyfriend of a year and a half. He's a great food critic although his tastes sometimes differ significantly from mine- he likes food so spicy it makes me sweat and my stomach burn. So if we can find a recipe for the both of us, it's a major success! I have also been able to persuade him away from using hot sauce on everything...another major milestone. I've been a member of allrecipes for awhile but just within the last year really started experimenting with recipes. I think that each time I make something it gets better and better...practice makes perfect. Pasta dishes, Mexican food, desserts... I just love, love, love Christmas baking- sugar cookies, bars, pecan tarts, wedding balls, fudge, etc. Also, every year on Christmas Eve we make homemade lasagna with salad, homemade garlic bread and a pie of some sort to top it off. My dad also makes oyster stew which only a few of us try. All of this with a nice cocktail or glass of wine...the thought of good food and my family just makes my heart warm! I really have never made a wonderfully extravagent meal that turned out perfectly...I'm still on the quest for this. I did, however, just recently FINALLY make a PERFECT batch of chocolate chip cookies! After batches upon batches of hard and crispy cookies, I finally made some that were soft, chewy, and tasty. I was so very proud of this achievement and they got the stamp of approval from my boyfriend, the chocolate chip cookie connoisseur! When I was about 15 years old, I made a carrot cake from scratch. After peeling the carrots, I placed all of the peelings in the garbage disposal and ran it. Before I knew it, I felt water leaking out onto my feet from below the sink. I looked in the cupboard and the carrot peelings were coming out of the pipes along with the water and the mixture of water and peelings poured out onto the kitchen floor. My, was that a mess to clean up! The cake turned out great though! ha