I love to cook and eat new foods, and I aim to cook healthy, delicious meals for my family. When I'm not working as a corporate writer or taking care of my family (1 husband, 2 small children, and a cat), I'm probably reading or daydreaming about food. I'm trying to stick to my flexitarian (i.e., mostly vegetarian) diet while cooking for my meat-loving family. I have (mostly) cooking/food blogs at http://moodysattva.blogspot.com and http://www.cookingmonkey.com. I like to cook most things. Love spicy stuff--especially Indian food! When it comes to baking, I'm less into the super-sweet things, but have a fondness for nuts, fruits, and spices in my baked treats. I hope to start some more family cooking traditions with my children, when they are old enough. My son sometimes helps with dinner and (especially) desserts. I'd like to include my husband here, but he's the kind of person who'd starve beside a loaf of unsliced bread. Ha, kidding. Half. I'd have to say...making flaky pie crust, getting my husband and son to eat (and like) fish, and learning how to make yeast breads without a machine. Getting my hubby to try 'weird' food (e.g., different ethnic foods) was also a triumph. It's not that hard to get my son to try because he's young and has a mostly blank slate as far as his tastes are concerned. ;) Most of all, learning to actually like cooking is the biggest triumph. I used to despise it! One of the first meals I ever made was risotto. It tasted good but it was way too sticky! Oh, and there was the time I had a cake baking in the oven and no one noticed that the fuse had blown halfway through the cooking time. Last year I tried to make doubles (Trinidadian snack food with chick peas and fried bread) and it was awful. The chickpeas were too oily, the bread not enough so; it wasn't spicy enough, and the bread was weird and misshapen. Another time I was making something sweet (cookies?) and mixed up the cinnamon and the chili pepper. Thank goodness I realised it before I mixed it all in--I scooped it out and the cookies were saved.