I only really started to cook while living with my boyfriend in St Maarten. We love biking, running, working out and EATING! The challenge for each dish is to spice it to my BF's Middle Eastern tastebuds, keep it healthy, keep it kosher AND hope I can get everything I need from the very unreliable supermarkets here on the island!! As time consuming and labor intensive as it is, I love baking challah. It is a weekly event for me. Baking desserts was my first introduction to the kitchen as a teenager and I now I look for excuses to bake (since neither the BF or I should be eating that yummy junk). At a Hanukkah party I heard someone whisper, "She even made the applesauce herself." I feel a great sense of pride when people ask, "Where did you buy this?" and then watch their eyes go wide when my boyfriend proudly informs, "She made it!" I had someone recently introduce me as "an amazing cook". But I think the kicker was when my BF secretly confessed he liked my khoresh (Persian stew) better than his mother's (and yes, she's Persian) - which is borderline Persian sacrilege. :) Anything involving the beating of egg whites - I CAN'T GET PEAKS!!!