I'm a graduate student who is lucky enough to have a husband who will eat just about anything, so I can try almost any recipe on him. My parents are both abysmal cooks, one from lack of desire, the other from too much of a desire to eat quickly! After accepting that cooking for years, I'm trying to forge into the world of cooking with both feet forward so that our children will have food that they will associate with positive experiences... (no, I'm not thinking of those undercooked chickens, Daddy!) I love cooking Japanese and Middle Eastern food. The smell of rice with sushi vinegar is wonderful and my favorite spice combination is garam masala. We did have some nice cooking traditions, in spite of prior statements! Every Easter, my mom would make a coconut rabbit cake (the rabbit made from two circular pans, one for the head, the other for a bowtie and two ears) which I always looked forward to as a sign of spring. Also, when my mom decided to cook a real meal, it was always tasty and interesting, not much of a tradition, more of a hoped-for novelty amongst my siblings and I. Perfect chocolate chip cookies for my chocolate obsessed husband! A disgusting curry with way too many carrots; those carrots haunted my nightmares for awhile!