When the site asked how long I've been cooking, I shocked myself when I posted 10-20 years--and I'm only 28!! It has been that long, starting back in the kitchen with my mother and slowly developing my own senses. Mom, grandma, and brother all cook and bake very well (brother is a grad of the CIA)--you'll catch me watching The Foodnetwork when I can steal the remote from the boyfriend :) We love having 'Mexican Fiesta' and 'Asian Carnival' at our house---tacos, fajitas, stir-fry, dumplings, curries and soups...love it all. I also love to bake--cookies are fun to experiment with, and I am learning how to create the perfect chocolate cake. The whole 'baking is a science' keeps me motivated to master it. Grandma--best angel food cake ever. You will never buy one from the store again. Her happy little 'white chocolate surprises'--peanuts/krispies/white choc./peanut butter clusters satisfy any sweet/salty craving. Momma--she doesn't measure ANYTHING. And when you ask for a recipe, the response always is "I don't know." Beef stroganoff, oyster stew, stuffed green chiles, and even down-home midwest casseroles are my memories. Don't know if I would say 'triumphs' but here is what is in my repertoire: Turkey chili--don't be scare of the turkey!! I fooled some big games hunters in a cook-off once and won! Lasagna--again with the turkey. No cottage cheese here. Tacos/fajita--mmmmmmm. Stir-fry---veggie, chicken, tofu---all are great (always put in peanut butter.) Pasta dishes--I'm all over with anything that has farfalle in it! In 5th grade my friend and I mistook 1/4 tsp. for a 1/4 cup of baking soda in our chocolate chip cookies that we baked for the entire class. Needless to say, they weren't so well received. More recently (3 months ago) I baked a beautiful chocolate cake for the boyfriend, but didn't have the same size pans (2 were 9 in, and I think the other was 9.5---really weird.) Not using my brain, I put the larger-sized layer in the middle---so you know that the middle layer fell/crumbled all over the side of the perfectly frosted cake. His grandma was there---and every phone call she jabs me about my cake baking abilities.