First, An Award

I don't usually do these blog awards, but I was awarded one today by one of my favorite people and favorite blogs - Little Mrs. Stranded over at Stranded in Cleveland.





If you've never visited her ever-more-popular blog, you seriously should. It's a mix (aka a "versatile" mix) of recipes, home decor ideas, hosting how-tos, book reviews and more! Basically, if you're a non-native trying to make a home in a strange land - you know, or not- this blog is for you. Or for anyone, really.

Okay, so - to accept this award I have to tell you 7 things you may not already know about me. Here she goes:

1. I danced for most of my life - ballet, tap, jazz, and kickline. From about pre-school to my senior year of high school. And even still, I'm fairly uncoordinated. But the costumes! Oh the costumes! And being on stage! My favorite was probably when we danced to The Addams Family and wore these black and white jumpers with red leotards underneath. We had jailhouse knee highs and striped fingerless gloves and an amazing pageboy cap. That was the shit. Here's me circa 1989. My brother added Richie Tenenbaum and the quotes you see from The Royal Tenenbaums.


2. My sister and I (and sometimes my brother too) can carry on conversations using only movie/television/musical quotes. Into the Woods, Arrested Development, Hook, Old King Cole's Wee Sing-Along and the 1980-something Alice in Wonderland are some of our favorites to use. Just some. What's unfortunate about this ability is that it often doesn't translate to other people. And then I get the - who is this girl, she's so awkward - stare. Our favorites from each:

Arrested Development: Yeah, Mom's great. Let's call her.
Hook: Oh, THERE you are, Peter! -or- Just give'im a chance! -or- Me, Me, Me, Mine, Mine, Mine
Old King Cole's Wee Sing Along: Puhhh-leeeeassseeee

I can't think of anything off the top of my head from Into the Woods and Alice. These things just HAPPEN sometimes. But! This past Christmas, unbeknownst to either of us - we each used a different quote from the movie Elf on our Christmas Cards. I did, "Smiling's my favorite!" and she did, "I love you, I love you, I loooooove youuuuuuuuuuuu!"

3. I own A LOT of movies. Matt and I counted this past weekend as we sorted them, and we have 208 movies. This doesn't count TV box sets. I actually thought we had more. Anyway - when I'm having a boring Saturday, I'll watch them by theme. So, I could have a Sandra Bullock movie marathon. Or a Cinderella themed marathon. Or, most recently I played a 6 degrees-ish type game where someone from the current movie had to be in the next movie I chose. It was an awesome game. I'm a loser.

4. Though my green thumb is black, I still dream of one day - when I own my own house - starting a very serious vegetable garden. I want fresh tomatoes, fresh basil, fresh strawberries, fresh stringbeans. Maybe even pumpkins! Zucchini. Cucumbers. So many good things. Before my grandparents moved further east on the Island, basically to follow their children and grandchildren, my Grandpa has the BEST vegetable garden that took up a huge corner of their yard. I loved being in there with him and would love to have a Joe Buongiorno Vegetable Garden of my own someday. This is if I can stop killing all the plants.

5. I'm a pretty damn good cook but a truly awful baker. I really enjoy being inventive with what I have or changing recipes as I go. I dreamed up a salsa once that was to die for, though I'm not sure I could make it again. I think it had 3 different peppers, onions, tomatoes, lots of red pepper flakes, honey, lime juice, and fresh chopped mint. It came out really good, whatever it was that I did. Then I have these porkchops that I make that I personally LOVE and often crave. Here's the recipe that might make those of you who like to measure cringe. Except for the honey, each of these "measurements" is per side, per chop. So like, I do all of this for each chop and then I flip them around and do it again.

Pork chops - I like the thin sliced best.
Honey - works best with the kind that's already infused with cloves.
Salt & Pepper to taste
Garlic to taste
2 shakes cayenne pepper
3 shakes cinnamon
2 shakes allspice
Thyme (I probably shake a little less than a tablespoon over each side)

Let sit in this concoction for, at the very least, 4-6 hours, or, at the most, a full day/overnight. You can bake, pan fry, or BBQ.

6. Uhhh. Holy Crap. This just keeps getting harder. Okay. I am a walking contradiction in a lot of things. I am probably the pickiest, non-picky eater around. I'm also probably the sloppiest control freak around as well. For the first, I will eat almost anything. Or, I'll try almost anything. I love all sorts of different regional dishes. But I don't like tomatoes. I love the flavor of peppers, but I can't eat them unless they are cut super thin because I don't like the meaty yet crispy consistency. I put watermelon in the freezer before I eat it because I don't like it to be room temperature. And other things. As for being controlling, it's things like - I'm a pretty big mess, but my clothes in my closet are arranged by color, in rainbow order. And then for the 'non' colors it's Brown, White, Gray, Black. Gray is in the middle because mixing black and white together makes gray. And all of the hangers HAVE to face the same way. And in the kitchen, I have patterned bowls, and solid bowls. They need to be stacked 3 to a stack and the stack should ALWAYS be pattern, solid, pattern.

7. I'm a rabid blog follower. According to my Google Reader Trends page, I follow 193 blogs. They range from comic strips, to book review blogs, to home decor blogs, to blogs about science, to celebrity gossip blogs, to blogs about boogers. Everything. I keep trying to cut it down, but for every one that I'm like - I don't read this - there are 2 that pop up that I just HAVE to add. Over the last 30 days, I've: read 1,346 items, clicked into 27 (this is where I find more blogs), starred 39, shared 2 and e-mailed 41. With that in mind - here are my five award winning bloggers:

(also - please do not feel obligated to participate. It was pretty fun though)

Hither and Thither
David Maybury
The Perpetual Page Turner
Walk While Reading
Etsy Item of the Day

That's just a fraction of the great blogs I follow. And of course, if she hadn't already done me, I would so totally award Mrs. Stranded. She's got everything and every post is fun to read.