Thank you blogger friends

Since I started blogging, I've discovered so many wonderful food blogs, and also discovered a talented, supportive group of people out there in the blogosphere. Once in a while, I've noticed that some blogs have different little photos on the side, denoting an award that was presented from another fellow blogger.

Well, I was the recipient of my first award a few weeks ago, and then another one just this week. So, now you'll see that I've got a couple of these little markers on the side of my blog too.


MaryAnn of Finding La Dolce Vita gave me my very first award a couple of weeks ago and until now, I haven't had the chance or taken the time to post the requirements for accepting. MaryAnn's blog is a must-read for all the really terrific Italian recipes and beautiful photographs that she posts. She's going through a rough time right now, so be sure to visit her blog.

As part of this honest scrap award, I'm supposed to list 10 things about myself. I decided to make them all food related. So here goes:

1. I drink skim milk, but eat too many desserts.
2. It's hard to choose, but if I had to pick my last meal on earth, it would probably be some kind of pasta with seafood as a first course, ossobuco with porcini mushrooms as a second and some kind of lemony dessert. Oh, and artichokes alla giudia - wonderfully crispy Roman Jewish style fried artichokes. And maybe a real Neapolitan pizza margherita for starters. And can I have some 36-month aged parmigiana and gorgonzola as a cheese course? Whoops, I forgot chocolate - I can't leave out chocolate. Maybe some dark, dark chocolate and coconut gelato as the final dessert. It's going to be a long, long, last meal I think.
3. My cat ate part of an Italian rum cake that I made for a friend's birthday party and I had to redo the whole thing. Rocky is not allowed on the dining room chairs anymore.
The guilty one looking very innocent.

The second and final cake.

4. It really annoys me to see food being wasted. Needless to say, I was pretty annoyed at Rocky. But I guess if he enjoyed it, it wasn't wasted. Just gave me more work, though.
5. When I was in high school, as part of a project on the Philippines, I made a Philippine meat soup with a classmate and we spilled it in the hallway before we got to class. We scooped it up and served it anyway. Nobody got sick, and we got an "A." on our report. I told you it annoys me to see food being wasted.
6. I avoid fast food at all possible costs, but once in a while, when I'm overseas, I'll cave in and buy some fries at a McDonald's.
7. There are at least 20 varieties of tea in my cupboard, but I always go back to plain old Lipton Tea - decaffinated. It's my beverage version of comfort food - like my mother's chicken soup and pastina when I was growing up.
8. Until I was a grown up, I never ate peanut butter. My typical school lunches were salami, provolone and roasted pepper sandwiches. They're still the best, in my opinion.
9. I've eaten road kill. A deer hit my car (I didn't hit it, it hit me) and my husband and son gutted it in the backyard, and took it to a butcher without my knowledge. I was appalled when I first found out, but later became a convert, and we ate a lot of venison that winter. I wasn't kidding when I said it really annoys me to see food being wasted.
10. My favorite chef is Lidia Bastianich. I LOVE her restaurant Felidia, her show on PBS and how she uses it to impart her love of family, of Italy, and of Italian cooking.
Joe Bastianich, Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and me at the Today Show during the Olympics in Torino, Feb. 2006
11. I am lucky to have a ton of loving friends and relatives who in addition, are fantastic cooks and who share their goodness with me. I guess that's more than 10 comments, but I couldn't leave out these wonderful friends and relatives.

Now, I'd like to pass this on to a few food bloggers whose work is also wonderful:

Chef's Chuck Cucina
Closet Cooking
Italyville
My Bella Vita (her website seems to have been hijacked in the last couple of days and she's trying to straighten it out.)
Rubber Slippers in Italy
Bell'Avventura

*************And Yet Another Award:***************


A special thanks to Cassie of Foodie With Little Thyme for sending me the Sisterhood Award. It's one that's meant to be shared with other female bloggers. So I am passing it on to some sister bloggers whose work I love to read:

Stacy Snacks
Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy
Cucina Panzano
Jersey Girl Cooks
Mangiare Bene
Proud Italian Cook
Casalba News
Elra's Baking
NYC/Caribbean Ragazza
Over A Tuscan Stove