I have been cooking ever since I was little (about 10 or 11... I am now 26) and I love it! My dream is to finish college with a degree in Hotel and Restaurant Administration and then go to Culinary Arts scohol, and eventually open up my own restaurant. Right now, my kitchen is a restaurant every night, with all my friends and their friends coming over for dinner! I constantly get compliments from everyone. I love to cook anything, but mainly interesting dishes that most people from where I'm from don't usually eat. Examples are falafel, tabouli, pad thai, etc. I love chicken dishes! But my passion is baking. I always have a desert when I cook dinner -- cakes, pies, etc. We really don't have any traditions. The only one we really have is a lemon meringue or apple pie on my father's birthday. Making dishes that people always rave about and want the recipe for. This isn't really a cooking triumph, but I also do cake decorating and I won first place a couple years ago in a cake decorating contest in two different categories. My last accomplishment was creating a full Thanksgiving dinner for all my friends. This was a dual-person tragedy. I made a chili for my roommates and had to run to the store really quick. I told one of my roommates that the chili was simmering and to turn it off in 15 minutes if I wasn't back. I got held up at the store and when I got back an hour later, he hadn't turned off the chili and most of the liquid had evaporated so it was more of a paste than a chili. Another one was my pecan pie that I made for my friends. It was gorgeous, but when I cut into it, the center was still runny. So I put it back in the oven for a few minutes to set up. My friends and I started watching a movie, and about an hour into the movie, I remembered the pie. Needless to say, the center was set!! It was burned to a crisp, and cracked my pie plate.