I am a 2nd year law student at Boalt Hall (UC Berkeley), and I absolutely despised cooking when I was younger. I would exchange the chore of cooking for cleaning the bathroom. However, since the summer before sophomore year of undergrad, I decided to teach myself to cook, and I have been loving it ever since. I love baking birthday cakes and holiday treats for friends, and hosting dinner parties. Allrecipes has been my #1 resource.
My favorite things to cook
Yeast breads, cakes, cookies, casseroles, pastas, stir fry, french fries, and the occasional new dish (yeast cinnamon rolls and breads, toffee, pheasant, crepes, crab bisque, etc.)
My favorite family cooking traditions
Even today, family dinner comes with a game of dominos (sort of cooking related, right?) My dad is a commercial fisherman, so I was raised on delicious seafood dishes, including my mom's fab recipes for BBQ salmon, Cioppino, and shrimp scampi. Also, I associate powdered sugar crescent cookies, red-velvet (Waldorf) cake, and layered avocado bean dip with Christmas, and homemade peach ice cream with summer. There is also the family joke that Mom always forgets something in her cornbread.
My cooking triumphs
My first time cooking with yeast: amazing homemade cinnamon rolls. Also, making hard candy and toffee using a candy thermometer. Two delectable tres leche cakes. Finally, I gain such satisfaction whenever Mom asks for the recipe of whatever dish I'm experimenting with on my family that night.
My cooking tragedies
Oh geeze. So, during one of my first times cooking as a 4th grader, I was simply following my mom's directions, unbeknownst to me what exactly I was cooking. I had 2 pots on the stove: one with meat, one with hot water. She told me to put the sauce in a pan, and with my 9-year-old logic, since one pot already had stuff(meat) in it, and the other only water, I dumped the sauce in the boiling water. Ended up I was cooking spaghetti. While baking with an ex I forgot the sugar in sugar cookies. All I can say is that I've come a long way(although I'm positive there are more mishaps to come.)