one about FOOD!

1. What is your most memorable meal that you ate in your life & why?

So many great great meals shared around the dining room table at my parents house. 

I am thinking also of a really excellent meal that I shared with some friends at this little, wonderful restaurant called Rouge. 

2. Why did you started blogging?

My friend recommended that I write a blog so that he and some other friends' back in the Mitten could better follow my life at the Farm. It took me two years after that to finally sit down and start blogging, but by this time I was just the Monster Library student. I guess I finally did it because I love writing and I thought it would be fun to cast my voice out into the ocean of the internet and see what came back. 

3. What is your favorite restaurant, where & why?

The French Laundry. I love that it's in my hometown. I love that I have never had anything that I didn't enjoy. I love that I have eaten there with all my besties at some point or another. I love that I used to go there with my family. I love that the breakfasts are SO GOOD and so much--did I ever mention that breakfast is my FAVORITE meal of day!? I love that when I go home I meet up with my favorite Auntie Ruthie there. I love that I have taken my Farm friends there when they visited me in the Mitten. So much good food. So many good memories.
 

4. Who are your 3 most favorite chefs/cooks in the whole world and why?

1. My Mom is a rockstar cook who taught me how to make simple foods that fit into our simple budget, and the person who also taught me the important family recipes: nut rolls and chocolate chip walnut cookie bars (both are made at Christmas time), Grandpa's sweet iced tea, Grandma's Easter custard, Swedish meatballs. 

2. My friend B1 (though a CIA trained pastry chef) is an amazing cook. I have never eaten a bad meal when B1 is cooking. I miss the days when we all lived in TSide and did house dinners, when everyone would cook something--I will never forget these twice-baked potatoes which B1 made (that was 2005!) Mmm...

3. Julia Child. I love Julia's very story: a bored housewife looking for something to fill her time and feelings of being a foreigner in lovely Paris. I love that Julia was tall and a little awkward, but always honest. I have this fantasy that I will get to meet her in Heaven and we'll cook together. :) 

5. What is your favorite recipe on your own blog and why?Best summer dinner #1 was a great meal all around. All the foods were grown by us, at the Farm and the beef was our cows. Mmm... 

6. To which music do you listen to when you cook and bake & why?

Usually leave my iPod on shuffle. Listen to country music and bake ONLY when I am sad or nostalgic or both.

 7. What is the strangest food that you have ever eaten and did you like it or not?I dug up a clam, popped it open, cleaned the sand out in the ocean and slurped it down raw; 1997, Rainbow Beach, Australia. "It's what the locals do...?" The cool part was finding the clams by looking for bubbles at the sands' surface, the not cool part was the all day stomachache after.

8. What is your most lovely food destination in the world & why?

The food in Spain was amazing. Everywhere we went. I especially loved having gazpacho at lunch and dinner EVERYDAY. Also, my sister-in-law, a Spaniard, cooked the most amazing food for us while we were there. I still crave her langostina paella.

9. What is your most favorite food shop in the world & why?

I love food shops. I usually never have enough money for all I want. I do LOTS of oggling.   

10. Which kitchen gadget do you love the most & why?

I love the Kitchen's ENORMOUS and ANCIENT Hobart mixer. I love that Tuesdays are my days to make any kind of bread I want for our afternoon tea snack. 

I tag ANYONE WHO WOULD LIKE TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS MEME.