I am 24 and attended the University of Illinois. I am a Chemistry major, but i also manage a local area restaurant. The cooks at the restaurant have taught me how to prepare a variety of Mexican cuisines. My Girlfriend is Itallian and Greek, so I have spent over a year familiarizing a large variety dinners. I also enjoy creating new and creative entrees. Its more fun to add a bit of this and a little of that to find the perfect taste. I grew up on a 1000 acre farm, of course alot of people have now clue exactly what that means, but anyway, we raise angus cattle. I started to cook when i was around 8, my mother and father taught me how to marinade a fantastic steak. Every year for mothers day, the family all gets together for a very large feast. Varieties of foods from differet parts of the families create a large dinner, and also a bit of competion. My family is full of procrastinators. Because I am a full time student as well as a manager, it is hard to arrange special family occasions like Christmas and Thanksgiving. Well, last year, my family could not decide what day would be best to have Christmas dinner. This is because my brother and sister and I all have our own families now. Well to reach a conclsion, I invited the entire family to my girlfriend's and my little apartment. I cooked an entire Christmas dinner, to the Glazed Ham, (with a homemade glaze recipee) to Fresh Augratin potatoes. I also made cranberry sauce, fresh cresant rools, green bean casseroll (i know that one is easy) and finally a pretzel jello salad and truffle cheese cake. Everyone, as well as my self, was impressed, i only had an oven and stove, and made everything that morning. yeah, that is probably the most trimphic cooking experience hmm.... every good cook has to have a few right... yeah, me too. One of the first times i cooked, i was 8, i followed a recipee that had Whipping cream as an ingredient. Well, i thought whip cream stirred really long was whip cream... wow, i was wrong. Surprising really wasn't that bad in the end, just magnified the butter in the pasta about 10 fold. Another time i was trying to try a variation on my normal marinade for ribye steaks. I used a beautiful 97 merlot as a base. well, a little too much wine a a little too long marinade time, and I had what my family refers to now as Winebyes. Another time, actually, this was a few months ago, i was making funnel cakes for my girlfriend and I, well the oil spilled on the burner, and lit up like a bon fire on th fourth of july. that was entertaining.