I grew up with a mom who was a fabulous cook and baker. I remember being sick of having homemade cookies and just wanting to experience an oreo - I had no idea how lucky I was! Now that I'm grown and married I have embraced cooking, especially baking. As an Air Force wife I have plenty of opportunities to bake for lots of people. Like I mentioned in the "about me" section, my favorite thing to do is bake. I especially love making cookies and cheesecakes. Oh yeah, I also like muffins, cakes, breads, and brownies. My husbands favorite thing I make is the world's best chocolate chip cookies (a recipe I'm fairly stingy with). I also enjoy using seasonal produce and love the changes of season because it encourages me to try new recipes. The older I get the more willing I am to try new things and I always come to allrecipes for new ideas. I have lots of memories of my mom cooking and baking. I think 2 of my favorite traditions were the weekly cookie baking with my mom and sister and also my mom's sweet rolls that she only made for special/holiday meals. So yummy! My most recent cooking triumph was having Thanksgiving for 24 people in our smallish british home. Dinner was served only 15 minutes late and everything turned out well. Another triumph was the white chocolate brandy cheesecake that I got off this website and made for a Valentine's cooking club. Absolutely delicious - smooth and creamy! There have been multiple times when I've made things from this website and had recipe requests. Thanks allrecipes. Two tragedies spring to mind, both of them fairly recent. The first was when we first moved to England and a couple invited us over for a Mexican potluck. I brought the Mexican cornbread that I'd made lots of times. I mixed it at my house, but was baking it at the host's house so it would be nice and warm. A dish that takes 20 minutes to bake was still soupy after an hour in the oven. I'd like to blame the oven, but something was just wrong. My second mishap was for a tapas night with my cooking club. I made a flan which I had never done before (not a good idea when you are trying to impress people). It came out looking quite nice until I flipped it to get it out of the dish and only 2/3 came out. I had to piece it together because there wasn't time to bake anything else. It tasted delicious, but boy was it ugly.