I have been cooking since I was 9 years old. I LOVE to cook, I collect recipes and cookbooks, my favorite thing to do is to feed people good, wholesome meals that make them happy. I can cook pretty much anything but my newest interest is making international dishes and trying new foods I've never had before. I once made an Italian dish called Timpano de Macceroni that I saw made in the movie The Big Night and it was a HUGE hit (literally huge) and pretty much affirmed my abilities as a cook to my friends and family (not that they didn't know about them before, but they were SO impressed they didn't stop talking about it for at least a year, LOL!) I pretty much can do anything in the kitchen, and what I don't know how to do, I teach myself---cooking is my life, I love to make people happy with food!! I like cooking downhome meals that my kids will love---I do a lot with chicken and I love to use my slow cooker and find recipes that my kids will love that I can start before I go to work and have done by the time I get home! I also love to bake, I do a lot of breads and cookies but I'll try anything at least once! We have a lot of family food traditions, making the family Christmas cookies and having all the family come over to help decorate them, I always make Beef Wellington on Christmas Eve and we have our Chicken Paprikash soup that is a huge favorite, stuffed artichokes, tuna noodle casserole, chicken divan---just some examples of recipes that have been passed down over the years and through generations. Two of my biggest cooking triumphs have been successfully making a Beef Wellington that looked and tasted better than the one I have had at the local fancy restaurants. I saw the movie The Big Night and decided that I HAD to make a Timpano de Macceroni---found the recipe online and cooked from 9 am to 10 pm--but made the best darn Italian dish I've ever made!! http:www.thegutsygourmet.nettimpano.html Really, the only thing I've ever made that turned out really bad was a recipe I tried when I was first married. It was on a Rice A Roni box, called porcupine balls---it was a recipe for meatballs with rice a roni in them and it was AWFUL!!!! My ex-husband has said throughout the years that it was the only flop I ever made!