I am the mother to a very naughty dog named Marley, and with the organic, gourmet pet foods that I feed him, it is quite possible that he eats better than I do. By day, I am a graphic designer. Usually, I have 'container nights' for dinner- which is where I stand in front of the refrigerator with a spoon or fork, and eat out of containers. You'd be surprised...yogurt, pudding, cottage cheese, leftovers...a meal can be had within seconds without dirtying one dish! But when it's not container night, and friends are coming over - my Martha Stewart wanna-be genes kick in. It's all about the great food, the aesthetic, the presentation, and the mood. I believe if you can read, you can cook. Having been a vegetarian for many years, and having only to begun eating seafood recently, my favorite things to cook: Desserts, Pastas & unique or interesting soy based dishes. Yes. I would be the one showing up to Thanksgiving Dinner with a 'tofurkey' much to the chagrin of my meat eating family members. We have one cooking tradition in our family, the infamous 'Maw Maw's Potato Rolls.' My grandmother was a farmer's wife, and cooked like it. Her Potato Rolls were out of this world. Soft, moist, buttery, they weigh about 5 lbs. (it felt like). Because Maw Maw never worked from a recipe, only from feel, she had a hard time passing on the recipe. As a family, we fought over these rolls. We would not allow guests to eat the rolls because they were not blood relatives. Maw Maw passed away on Thanksgiving Day - believe it or not, making Potato Rolls to bring to dinner. I've been working on perfecting my ability to make these rolls for several years now. While not exactly like Maw Maw's - they are as close as anyone in our family has been able to get. Guess what I've been assigned to bring to Thanksgiving this year.... Love love love fancy desserts. Layered things, tall things, things that don't look like someone could make in their home kitchen. I don't love eating desserts all that much, I think I just like all the 'fussiness' involved with them. I also like any kind of pasta dish, filled pastas, etc. and seafood dishes. I can usually save the food part of a recipe when cooking (i.e. there's lots of ways to doctor something too salty, etc.). But I am notorious for having kitchen malfunctions with all of my gadgets and appliances. Most recently, a lid on a blender that flew off, only to leave spinach and artichoke dip all over my: counters, cabinets, backsplash, CEILING, and me. I also have a tendency to burn myself when using the oven. The scars on my wrists from banging them in to the oven racks are starting to fade nicely.