Well I am finally on the upswing, although my home is still a house of germy horrors (the kids have been hacking all night). It pretty much peaked last weekend (that bundt cake was from last week, it just took me that long to post it), at which point I wanted to die. But no more, for me at least, so I am trying to get back to blogging. I don’t have a recipe for you yet (my mom is here and cooking for us, thank goodness), but I did come across this great Kitchen Meme today (I like the memes that involve food and cooking) while looking at some blogs. Saralynn, of Happy Baker, invites anyone to play along and so I will. In the meantime, I am also going to (finally) answer the tag from my friend Anne over at Yankee Langiappe–she has a great knitting blog, check it out some time if you are interested. I am not tagging anyone–just inviting anyone who wants to be tagged for either of these to consider themselves tagged.
Kitchen Meme
What three kitchen items do you use the most often?
KA mixer, 7 qt Dutch oven (le creuset), silicone spatulas
What kitchen gadget do you wish you had?
The pasta maker attachment for the KA mixer
What kitchen gadget do you never use/wish you hadn’t spent the money for?
This is hard since the ones I really don’t use were all gifts. Er, pass.
What is your favorite cookbook? (Link if you can!)
OK this one is flat out impossible–I could never have just one favorite! The one with the biggest impact on me is True Thai by Victor Sodsook. My favorites to browse are my Yockelson baking books: ChocolateChcolate and Baking By Flavor.
Who is your cooking inspiration?
My husband because he is the best and most appreciative audience I could have, my sister because she encourages me and is always interested when I start talking food, and my mom for for being a great cooking role model.
What are three recipes that you use all the time?
1. My mom’s chicken divan
2. tortilla soup
3. chili
Can you share a cooking secret?
I believe in increasing spices and aromatics (in most cases)–we like a lot of flavor. A pinch of sugar or a drizzle of honey does wonders for a lot of savory dishes.
What is your greatest cleaning secret?
Letting the dogs lick the plates before they go through the dishwasher. (Are people still willing to eat at my house?) Actually I wash all plates before they go into the dishwasher–I am anal that way.
What is your favorite thing to clean?
Flat things like plates–I hate corners.
What is your least favorite thing to clean?
Stuff with a lot of hard to reach corners, like baby bottles
What is your most embarrassing housekeeping moment?
Uh, I don’t have any–that would imply the house is normally neat and orderly.
Who do you tag to do this next?
Anyone who wants to play! Let me know you did it, and I will check it out!
Alphabet Soup Tag
Here is what you do. Use the 1st letter of your middle name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real places, names,things…nothing made up! Try to use different answers if the person you took this from had the same 1st initial.
You CAN’T use your name for the boy/girl name question.
1. Middle name letter: J
2. Famous artist/band/musician: Jane’s Addiction
3. 4-letter word: Is this literal or a “4 letter word”? Hmmm… I’ll say “jump” and let your imaginations do the work if it is the second
4. U.S state: new Jersey
5. Boy name: Jack
6. Girl name: Jill
7. Animal: Jaguar
8. Something in the kitchen: Jellyroll pans
9. Reason for being late? Just lost track of time.
10. Body Part? Joints
11. Drink? Jolt
12. Something you shout: Uh, I will abstain here since shouting blashemy is easier than typing it.
13. Something you eat? Jewish bagels
14. A movie you’ve seen? Well we want to see Juno
Fun! Glad you played along. I like the second meme and will post it maybe tomorrow. I will let you know 🙂
Welcome back!
OK, I answered your cooking meme tag, although I think my answers make me look really lazy. 😉
Anne