I'm an Indiana girl living in Japan. Loving it here, but still trying to get used to working with a Japanese kitchen and ingredients! I LOVE to bake breads... kneading the dough, the smell of the kitchen, all of it is wonderful. It makes home feel like home. When I was little, cookies were always a family affair. Everyone had their job, from finding the ingredients, to stirring it all together, to licking the bowl afterwards! (my favorite!) My greatest cooking triumph thus far has been making the Thanksgiving turkey for a big party of international students at university. My friend Becca and I made it. We were so nervous because it was the very first Thanksgiving for the students and we wanted it to be perfect. Well, angels were with us because it came out beautiful and delicious! World's spiciest chili!! So, in the United States, chili powder is actually a mix of things generally that are intended to go into what an American understands to be chili (a kind of stew). In Japan, I made chili for friends one night and thought...we'll that's a strange color! And then I tried it...the Japanese chili powder turns out to be REALLY SPICY crushed red chilis... To get it back to a somewhat normal level of spice...it took 2 more trips to the grocery store for veggies and such and ended with around 3 GALLONS of chili. hmm...oops!