Tanna Tagged Me

One of the blessings of a group like the Daring Bakers is that you end up making blogging buddies and finding new blogs that are interesting and beautiful. Tanna of My Kitchen In Half Cups was one of the early members of the Daring Bakers, so I've know her for a while. She has wide ranging interests and is a whiz at baking, especially bread, so it's always fun to visit her blog.

Now she has tagged me for a meme that consists of a series of questions. I learned a lot about her from her answers and hope to learn about the folks I'll be tagging, too.

Most of those I've tagged are relatively new to me, although TadMack who blogs at Wish I Were Baking isn't. I included her partly because I had the pleasure of meeting her in person recently and this gives me an opportunity to plug her new book.

She has written a book for the 11 to 17 year old demographic and it's the perfect book for a food blogger because it's about a young woman who wants to be a TV food personality. It's called A La Carte and you can find it on Amazon. It's a wonderful book and you might enjoy it yourself if you are young at heart and know how to dream.

So here is the meme...enjoy! All peach pies will be gratefully accepted...just e-mail me and I'll send you my address...just kidding!

Elle

1) LAST MOVIE U SAW IN A THEATRE?

Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull. I love most of the Indiana Jones movies, although you can keep the second one. Last movie seen in a theatre before that might have been Titanic…not a regular movie goer to put it mildly

2) WHAT BOOK ARE U READING?

The Purrfect Murder by Rita Mae Brown…who can hate a cat who solves mysteries, plus I grew up in Virginia and know a lot of the customs

Cakes to Dream On by Colette Peters…because I plan on painting fantasy cakes soon

“A” Is For Alibi by Sue Grafton…it’s been so long since I read it the first time that I have totally forgotten everything in the book (so far).

The Brothers Grimm, Popular Folk Tales…because it’s almost time for another tale from the Land of St. Honore’ and I’m looking for inspiration

3) FAVORITE BOARD GAME?

I’ve never cared for board games, but can tolerate Scrabble


4) FAVORITE MAGAZINE?

Bon Appetit and The Family Handyman


5) FAVORITE SMELLS?

Lavender, roses, mint, turkey, brownies or chocolate chip cookies baking, but best of all bread baking


6) FAVORITE SOUNDS?

Morning bird calls, butter sizzling in the pan, hummingbirds whir , waves washing up on the shore at the ocean


7) WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD?

An unexpected call in the middle of the night


8) WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN U WAKE?

How the day looks…I live very much in touch with the out of doors, so a very hot or cold or stormy day can color how I approach the rest of the morning


9) FAVORITE FAST FOOD PLACE?

Rarely do fast food, but occasionally will have a latte’ at Peets coffee shop in town


10) FUTURE CHILDS NAME?

Hahahahahahaha…no more children for me!


11) FINISH THIS STATEMENT—’IF I HAD A LOT OF MONEY I’D......

How much is a lot?

A small ‘a lot’ would mean more travel.
A larger ‘a lot’ would mean being able to live where we live and near my daughter, too.
A larger ‘a lot’ would mean being able to create scholarships for students graduating from high school and needing that money to go on to college
A larger ‘a lot’ would mean new cars and trips for friends and tuition for my nephews and grand nephews and grand nieces and a private plane with a pilot at the ready for those trips and to go see my Mom a lot….
So how much are we talking about??


12) DO U DRIVE FAST?

Probably


13) DO U SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL?

No, but sometimes I sleep with my dog


14) STORMS–COOL OR SCARY?

I love storms, but that same dog is frightened of thunder


15) WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR?

A company car, no less, which was a white Mercury four door. The first one I paid for myself was a VW bus which I used to get to California way back when


16) FAVORITE DRINK?

Tea tops the list, followed by coffee and then wine. Love lemonade, too


17) FINISH THIS STATEMENT-IF I HAD THE TIME I WOULD…

Write more cards and letter to friends and family…it is a dying art


18) DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI?

Nope, although sometime I make them into soup


19) IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY OTHER COLOUR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE?

Right now the dye is the same shade as my natural color was as a younger woman, so I look like me. One day in the future I’ll go totally gray, all at once and be done with it


20) NAME ALL THE DIFFERENT CITIES/TOWNS U HAVE LIVED IN?

Rocky Mount, NC
Falls Church, VA
Sausalito, CA
Berkeley, CA
My present location in N. CA
I don’t really like moving…can you tell?


21) FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?

Soccer…even grade school level games are fun to watch


22) ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?

Tanna at My Kitchen In Half Cups has a wonderful blog, with great photos and she is a dynamite baker…something that is an inspiration. Plus I suspect that if we lived close we would be friends.


23) WHATS UNDER YOUR BED?

Carpet and dust bunnies


24) WOULD U LIKE TO BE BORN AS YOURSELF AGAIN??

Yes.


25) MORNING PERSON OR NIGHT OWL?

Usually morning


26) OVER EASY OR SUNNY SIDE UP?

Over easy


27) FAVORITE PLACE TO RELAX?

In bed…it’s also my favorite place to read


28) FAVORITE PIE?

peach


29) FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR?

Peppermint (although not with peach pie…with that I like vanilla )


30) OF ALL THE PEOPLE U HAVE TAGGED, WHO IS THE MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND FIRST?

I am tagging 5 people who commented on my last post (hope that won’t scare off future commenters). They come from all over and I don’t know too much about most of them and would love to know more. They also each have great blogs (do check them out)! I hope they don't mind being tagged...even if they just take the time to visit I will be a happy camper!!

Giz from Canada who is blogging at Equal Opportunity Kitchen

Miss Kat from Mississippi who is blogging at All I Wanted Was a Diet Coke

Katie from England who is blogging at Apple and Spice

The beautiful Tadmack from Scotland who is blogging at Wish I Were Baking

Kj from Australia who is blogging at A Cracking Good Egg

A Few More Things About Meme

The darling Inne of Vanille and Chocolat in London has tagged me for a meme...and I, too, wonder how you pronounce that...and this time I can blog about a fact or tidbit using the letters of my first name. Fair warning...there will be four bloggers tagged at the end, one for each letter of the name...they will then get to do the same.

As some of you may know, Elle is my blogging name. Lucky pick..what if I had decided on Lucretia?

Since this is a food blog, the bits will be food related. Seems fair.

E - Easy - Although I occasionally enjoy complicated cooking or baking (which is good or I couldn't be a Daring Baker), mostly I prefer to make things that are easy and use seasonal ingredients. One reason you won't see too many of our regular meals on this blog is that they tend to be prosaic...meat, poultry or fish, prepared simply, with a simple veg or salad and something like baked potato or brown rice on the side. The most excitement is when Sweetie pours a slug of bourbon on the salmon before grilling. For entertaining I pull out the stops and do complicated and intersting dishes, but I've too many other enthusiasms taking up my energy, so I go for easy weekday meals.

L - Love - Cooking with love should not be underestimated. Even those simple and easy meals are satisfying when made with love. Little things count, like inspecting the salad greens to remove any bruised lettuce and to snap off the extra long stems so often found in mesclun mixes. Adding some chopped fresh herbs to the rice or some grated lemon zest is still easy, but is a loving touch. Making a favorite dish or dessert for a special someone's birthday is a family tradition and a sign of love. Sharing recipes and food with friends is, to my mind, one of the best parts of cooking and blogging.

L - Local - As the world becomes more crowded and as resources become more scarce, perhaps the time has come to really think about eating local foods. I love that watermelon is available year 'round in the grocery, but the time may be coming when it will again be a seasonal treat of high summer. Shipping that heavy fruit from Chile (or wherever it comes from) to California uses so much energy. The garden gets bigger every year, so maybe next year there will be melons planted. Maybe I need to plant some more fruit trees too. Figs trees do really well in this area. I'm going to be spending some time this winter with seed catalogs, too.

E - Eating - I love to eat. Really. Guess I always have. It is especially fun to eat with others. I grew up in a large family. Truthfully, eating with 10 other people is a mixed bag...one spilled glass of milk after the other and lots of noise...but I still loved it. When I eat by myself, I usually bring something to read with me to the table. For so many years eating alone wasn't even a possibility, so I got used to company. The folks in a good novel can be company in a pinch, right?

Well, that's it for this meme.

Passing it on to Anh of Food Lover's Journey, Amanda of Little Foodies, Davimack of Wish I Were Baking, and Deborah of Taste and Tell. They are all amazing bloggers so you should visit their blogs often, especially at the end of the month when Daring Bakers run amok in the blogosphere. I won't be joining them this month, but you won't want to miss the fun and delicious goodies.

An Unusual Tag

Dharm of Dad - Baker & Chef has tagged me for an unusual meme. The rules are below, but before we get to that, I want to acknowledge that he blogged the L is for Love, and sweetly, too. I'm also a romantic and have great faith in the power of love to transform individuals and, by extension, the world. It's one of the reasons why making new friends through blogging, like Dharm, is so satisfying.

So this meme works this way:

1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.

2. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of their middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.

3. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts.

4. At the end of your blog-post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag.

5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

My name, Elle, is a pen name for blogging, purely invented, so my middle name is invented, too. I think that Marie goes well with Elle, don't you?

M - Memory used to be something I had in spades. I could find anything and rarely forget an important date or task. Now I rely on lists and PDAs and putting things away where they belong (you can see that I was not organized, just lucky) and leaving myself notes to help remember things. I still have a fair memory, just not as facile a memory as I had even a few years ago.

A - Art is one of the enthusiasms in my life and I've been lucky enough to attend a watercolor class most Monday mornings for almost two years. I love the light that you get with watercolor and also the fact that sometimes the 'mistakes' where the paint does things like runbacks and sort of has a mind of its own can create the best paintings in the end.

R - Roses are one of my favorite flowers. I don't have over a hundred roses like a couple of friends of mine do, but they are Rose Society members and would be very unhappy to see the state of my roses right now. I do prune and spray half of my rose bushes each year, but have yet to be diligent with each one every year. Something to aim for.

I - Ice cream is my least favorite dessert. Not sure why, but it's true. I don't enjoy icy drinks like smoothies, either. Icing, on the other hand, I can eat right out of the bowl :)

E - Eight children is quite a few to raise, but that is what my parents did, and I believe they did a good job. I enjoyed being one of the eight and was lucky enough to be the third from the top. An older brother and an older sister did a lot of the work of finding out what the rules were and I benefited by their experiences. Cooking for eight kids and two parents also helped me to be comfortable with cooking for larger groups, which is coming in handy with my new job where I assist with making lunch for 25 about 4 times a month.

OK, so now I have to tag 5 bloggers:

Ahn of Food Lover's Journey

Cynthia of Tastes Like Home

Kristen of Dish and Dine

Kelly of Sass and Veracity

Sandi of Whistlestop Cafe

Seven

Seven seems to be a popular number lately. Lots of couples paid extra to get married on July 7, 2007 because 7-7-7 is supposed to be lucky.

Today I got lucky because the lovely Jerry of Food and Photo tagged me for the Seven Random Things About Me meme. If it had not been random things, I'd feel unlucky, but, geeez, I should be able to to random. Thanks Jerry!

1. I don't like goat cheese. Here in California, especially in the Wine Country, goat cheese is served fairly often in lots of ways. If it's on the plate, I'll eat it, but I'd much rather have almost any other kind of cheese. I've tried many different brands and even fresh from Nan's goat (with some assist from Nan in making the milk into cheese), but it still leaves me cold. Guess I like cow's milk cheeses the best.

2. I don't knit or crochet. There is a story behind that. And a pun just made :) When my Dad drove my brother, sister, and myself to Alabama to visit my grandmother one summer, I had just learned how to crochet. We were driving a station wagon. At some point in the journey, I jumped into the far back part of the car and impaled my rear on one of the crochet needles. Ever since them I can't get excited about crochet or knitting needles as a way to pass the time enjoyably.

3. When I have a job I tend to be super neat and organized, but my office, pantry, linen closet, front hall closet, etc. look like a thief has just ransacked them looking for hidden jewelry.

4. My first cat was a marmelade colored cat, Muffin, but since then I've never had another cat that color. I do love marmelade on my English muffins, too.

5. I love making my own greeting cards. I use PageMaker, a graphics program, and Avery #3379 note cards. It allows me to make personalized cards with my own photographs or drawings. I also make calendars the same way for special people like my daughter.

6. My favorite music is Celtic, especially fiddle music. I know someone who is going to a Celtic fiddle camp in Scotland next month and I'm salivating hearing about what she will be doing and where she will be going in Scotland.

7. I love, love, love fall with crisp, cool days and golden sunshine and all the colors of the fall leaves, and enjoy spring and winter, but I hate summer. I don't like heat, and when I was growing up it was hot and humid and no air conditioning and we had to do chores all summer. I know I should get over it now that I am waaaaay past childhood, but summer is still my least favorite time of year, mellowed only partially by all of the zucchini in my garden right now.

That's pretty random, right?

So I'm tagging:

Peabody of Culinary Concoctions by Peabody because she loves autumn, too, plus she's an interesting person with great passions.

Kristen of Dish and Dine because she makes things very fascinating when she writes about them.

Lis of La Mia Cucina because she is such a funny writer and just plain fun.

Anna of Anna's Cool Finds because she has an international outlook and writes such great reviews.

Beth of West of Taos, who might not appreciate being tagged, but her writing is stellar.

Kellypea of Sass and Veracity because I enjoy her writing and opinions.