I'm a poor post-college student trying to incorporate some of the exotic into the everyday, ordinary life. I've never traveled, but I plan on seeing the world some day. Cooking is a way for me to "venture out" a little and be creative here at home. I'd love to have a lot of money just to spend on cooking fantastic dishes and entertaining guests! Hmm, anything new and interesting! I love all sorts of ethnic foods. I usually do my best to eat healthily, cooking vegan and organic foods as much as possible, but I also have an insatiable sweet tooth! My dad makes the best chili and spaghetti I've ever had, inspired by my grandmother's cooking. I also love big Thanksgiving, Easter, and Christmas meals with the whole family. Every Sunday my dad used to get a big brunch cooking for my mom, my sister, my brother, and I when we got home from Church. Even though I'm vegan and no longer eat any of these foods, I still cherish the memories and the time we continue to spend sharing these traditions. A couple of my friends once decided that another friend and I were going to go head-to-head in an "Iron Chef" competition... so, they left for a while and brought back the only ingredients we were allowed to use: pizza rolls, a frozen pepperoni pizza, spicy chicken taquitos, onion tater tots, and jalapeno potato chips... What on earth was I supposed to make with those??? Not only did all of the "ingredients" disgust me, but they didn't allow much room for creativity. Well, I was actually pretty proud of myself when I won with the "chicken jalapeno hash rolls"-- I scraped the cheesy-chicken gook out of the taquito shells, fried it with the mashed tater tots and some spices, added handfuls of crushed jalapeno chips, spooned the filling into the empty shells, and fried the rolls in a pan until crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. The boys loved them so much that I regretted a tiny bit not trying a bite for myself. Well, there are a lot of these... one that comes to mind is Reese's pancakes... peanut butter doesn't work in pancakes.