Still here – bearing a meme

Yes, I’m still around, it’s just that I’ve been busy doing… other things than writing here; life’s been busy lately and I’ve been neglecting my good ol’ luggage – if I go on this way, one of these days it’s going to stop pouting and start walking away… And I can not allow that!

So, as a recap of what I’ve been up to on the web:

• I tried my hand at the Google Meme I spotted at Charlotte’s Web: you type your web name in Google and add ‘needs’ after it, to see what Google thinks you need… Boring! – apparently, I am the only martadc who might need anything on the web, because most of the search results were pointing to wordpress, either to this blog or my comments around my blogroll, and to the Sims 2 websites I used to hang around some months ago. Well, I now know I have a most unusual web name!
• I found the Bliss list meme, and made a mental note to think about it – but still haven’t done it. Maybe, to follow David Allen’s GTD book I recently read, I should have just written it down and put it in my inbox…? Possibly. It is still lying around on my desktop, on some stickie-note (see, it wasn’t exactly a mental note!), and might get around to it this week.
• I’ve been watching the Dresden Files TV show: of course, not as good as the books (are they *ever*?), but I’ve discovered Paul Blackthorne, who has had me drooling since he first showed up on the screen…
• Writing down reading suggestions from Charlotte, Kerryn and Jess – those are a lot of books, but hey… one always needs a pile of them waiting to be read!

And out of the web, you might wonder? (Even if you don’t wonder – I’m going to tell you) Well, I’ve made important decisions, backed up my computer, hanged around with friends and family, read some Truman Capote and Tite Kubo’s “Bleach” manga, and maybe the most significant event of all: I’ve finally gotten over M and met him again, after a whole month of ‘mourning’ – we are still friends, get along pretty well and enjoy each other’s company so… All’s good!

But, this is not over yet! I found another meme at Charlotte’s (yes, I am a fan of Charlotte’s Web, you’ll know why if you head over there), and this one I think I can manage pretty quickly: the 8 food things meme.

What are your favourite foods?

Fruits & Veggies: Avocado, raspberry, lollo rosso lettuce, kiwis, zuchinni.
Dairy: feta cheese, organic vanilla yogurt, pure semi-salted butter, vanilla ice cream.
Meat & fish: king prawns, marinated salmon, a rare, creamy and soft beef sirloin, roasted chicken, our (my mom’s mostly) ”roasted cod with onions and potatoes” recipe.
Pasta: all kinds!
Sweets: french butter croissants, my homemade brownies, or my mom’s tiramisu – oh and dark chocolate of course.

What foods do you hate?

Green peas, mussels, horseradish, the fatty and almost raw bacon usually found in Spain, anchovies, iceberg lettuce. Oh, and entrails of any kind: liver, tongue… The only exception: French goose’s liver – which I do love.

Foods you like but are embarrassed to admit:

Snickers, twix, bounty… mostly chocolatey-processed sweets! I don’t usually eat them – I hate to look at their ingredients – but do like them!

Strangest food you’ve eaten and enjoyed?

Hum, I don’t think I’ve ever eaten any food that could be qualified as strange. Well, eating cactii sounded weird the first time I had a ‘nopalitos’ salad in a Mexican restaurant but I guess it was just the novelty of it – they taste pretty good, by the way.

Cooking failures that still rankle?

The first time I cooked some fish fillets in the oven for my whole family: I left them in there for too long and were very very dry and pasty. Also, recently I tried baking my brownies on a different mould, a silicone one, and they stuck to it (search me, it’s supposed to be a non-sticking material): I had to take them out in bites, amorphous ones – they still tasted great and were gone in a frenzy (took them to work for my birthday), but I was still frustrated!

Ingredients you don’t want to consider living without?

Olive oil, lemon, kiwis, oregano, basil, cured ham, flour, eggs, sugar, nutmeg.

Cuisine you’d like to know more about?

I’d love to be able to cook Japanese, Indian or Mexican (sans cilantro though) food – the most difficult step is getting the ingredients which happens to be the first one!

Foods you’ve hated but have grown to love?

Raw tomatoes: I couldn’t eat them until I moved out to Sweden for 6 months and found tomatoes were the easiest and quickest way to prepare a salad – I learnt to appreciate them!

Current kitchen conundrum?

Several: finding a different way of eating minced meat which doesn’t involve tomato sauce and pleases both my parents & me; finding an easy and savoury recipe for roasted chicken – my dad wants a spicier one! Finding a muffin recipe – which I think I already did, now I just need to try my hand at it!

—- That’s all folks! Hope you liked the update, I know I did!