Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Spagetti, my mom's style, in a casserole dish with cheese broiled on top.

I was too young - I don't remember, I'm afraid. I grew up in a midwestern Canadian city with a moderately large Indian population, so it was always around. By 10, when most of my friends would have listed burgers or chicken fingers as their favourite food, mine was curry. When I was very good or for special meals, I was taken to Rajdoot. My parents even bought me the hat the servers wore, because I liked it all so much.

I'm Canadian, and my mom, who's family's been in Canada for +160 years, calls it a Birmingham Egg. No one has any idea of why that's their name, but there it is.

Are you supposed to drain the liquid from the peas first? Because I didn't, and got a bowl full of pasta and peas and fish and yogurt soup. The soup was tasty, but not a sauce that stuck to the pasta in any way. Tasted good at least!

Less meat, certainly!

I got Pringles in "Spicy Guacamole" in Mexico that weren't bad, and some (forgotten brand) Port and Stilton chips in London last year. They were delicious.

A chocolate birthday cake from a bakery in Calgary called Decadent Deserts. It involved 2 pounds of Bernard Callebaut chocolate and not a lot else. BLISS.

To be happy. To simply let the tumultuous year that was 2008 slide away and just enjoy where I am now.

I figure that's just about as hard as my goal to stop eating junk food regularly. But just as beneficial, if not more...

It was my 26th birthday. My closest friends were around my dining room table, the candles were lit, the food was on the table, I had just sucessfully roasted my first turkey. The scene was perfect, the food was fabulous, and it was all made better by my favourite people being there with me.

His 101 lists in the NY Times are something I got back to regularly. I like the way he thinks and explains things.

My favourite crazy thing that she did was on her show at least ten years ago - I would never make it but it cemented by love of Martha. She took tiny flowers and with a paintbrush coated them in egg white, and then dusted them with super fine sugar, for decoration. It was such an insane thing to do that I couldn't help but appreciate her.

I do use her snickerdoodle recipe, among others. Her comfort cooking book from the late 90s is still one I cook from. Crazy as she may be (and that's why I love her), she sure does know food!

This was so, so good. Totally going in to the keeper recipe pile.