I realized I was a grown-up when I started feeling the urge to walk around places like Williams-Sonoma.

In the past year, my love for creating great experiences through food has really taken off. It feels weird for me to say I'm into "cooking" -- which to me suggests homey and domestic -- so I tend to describe what I enjoy as "recreating favorite foods." It's not about preparing meals as much as creating interesting eating experiences, to me. The best foods are the ones that evoke experiences -- the ones that taste like a Autumn day (pumpkin pie bread!) or the foods that made me smile in Korea and Japan (like the delightfully spherical takoyaki).

On that note, here's a list I've been keeping of interesting foods I attempted to recreate in the past year, from foreign to familiar, in approximately reverse-seasonal order.

-Homemade Pasta
-Mango Sticky Rice
-Ebelskivers (Danish Filled Panckes)
-Dense, Chewy Gingerbread Cookies
-Spaghetti & Meatballs (Decorated) Cupcakes
-Waffles and Waffle-Yaki
-Takoyaki
-Oknomiyaki
-Omurice
-Orange Pumpkin Cranberry Bread
-Apple Pie Mochi
-Pumpkin Pie Loaf
-Pumpkin Daifuku
-Pumpkin Pie Bars (aka Ice Cream Mixer)
-Pumpkin Pie Mochi
-Pumpkin Tteok
-Pumpkin Waffles
-Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream
-Roasted Butternut Squash Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter
-Sweet Potato Fries
-Kabocha Yellow Curry
-Pumpkin and Banana Tempura
-Funnel Cake
-Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwiches
-Zucchini "Carrot" Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
-Blueberry Loaf
-Mexican Rice Pudding
-Homemade Tortillas
-Jap Che
-Smoked Salmon Pizza
-Rice Krispy Treats
-Avocado Shakes

Anything you'd like to try? Come on over!