First of all, I am very excited to have joined this web site. I love cooking both for our family and also for are many get togethers that we have at out house. My wife and I are originally from Hawaii and moved 10 years ago so that our daughter could get treatment at St. Jude Hospital in Memphis, TN. We ended up staying in Memphis for several years and that's where my cooking "bug" began. Being from Hawaii, I was fortunate enough to experience a wide variety of cultures and needless to say, lots and lots of different types of foods. Unfortunately, I took the availability of all that great food forgranted and never learned how to make it myself. Once things weren't readily available, I learned if I want to eat things that I love and miss, I best be learnin how to make it. I've nearly topped off on being able to cook all the things that we love and miss and would love to expand my knowledge of cooking other meals. I love cooking because it gives me a real special feeling when I see the " I really love cooking AND eating Hawaiian foods. They are easy to make and full of flavor and eases the homesickness... but really, I'm just happy cooking anything I guess you can say that making Lau Laus is a family tradition for celebrations at our house. There is a little bit of prep work involved so it can be a family event preparing this meal. I can remember the first time I made banana nut bread!!!! I bragged on that for days, man. You see, I'm not much of a baker and I know I really need to learn, but that was the reason I was sooo proud when I made an awesome banana nut bread. You see my profile name?... Cooking from the Hip?... Well, the best way to describe this is throwin a little bit of this... and a little bit of that... and well.... it doesnt always turn out for the best. I AM getting much better at NOT doing this and hopefully I can change my profile name to Cooking from the Head...