When I was young, I was diagnosed with a medical condition that forced my parents to keep me from being too active, so in self-defence, my mother taught me to cook at a very young age (learning to cook + low-activity lifestyle; not a good combination for the long-term!). That interest in the preparation of food started me on a life-long interest in cooking, and as a young adult, my step-mother fostered that interest even more, in that she was very adventerous and seldom made the same dish twice (at least not the same way twice, much to my father's consternation at times!).I love to try new things, and make them my own! Mediterranean, Tex-Mex, Indian, and Asian are my favorite kinds of food to make, along with a good old meatloaf or burger now and then. I also like to bake, but any more, I usually only bake for special occasions. Because of my life-long weight issues due to my health issues as a young child, and more recently because my husband had a heart attack, I try to make things as healthy as I can without losing too much of the essence of the original dish. Sometimes what results is a winner, other times, not so much! Probably the number one tradition we have is to grill as much of our food as possible. When you seldom make the same thing the same way more than once, it is hard to develop traditions! Thank goodness my husband is just as adventurous as I am when it comes to food, and our poor son never had a chance to be otherwise!