Relieved

Hey everyone!

I received so many amazing responses on my last post – not only for the information about the chestnuts, but also for the kind words about my friend. I did get a response from her, and upon reading it, I was almost moved to tears. She IS getting help, and she wasn’t angry with me at all. The relief that swept over is indescribable. She wants to use me as a resource next semester, and I am glad to be one. The reason I haven’t posted in the past couple of days is because I was so worried about the whole situation. As you can see, that part of it is all over with.

For funsies: I read this foodie survey over at Michal’s Blog, and decided to give it a go.

Favorite food to crunch - apples and carrots!

Favorite comfort food - a big bowl of oatmeal. Which means I am comforted every morning!

Favorite picnic lunch - A wrap with hummus, spinach, tomatoes, sprouts, and pepers, with an apple, carrot sticks,

Favorite food scene in a movie – Pretty much any scene from the movie Chocolat. Yes, I know its obvious. Do I care? No.

Favorite food related lyrics - I can’t honestly think of any… let’s see… Oh! The Coffee Cantata from J.S. Bach. Featuring such lines as (in translation)

If I can’t drink my bowl of coffee three times daily, then in my torment, I will shrivel up like a piece of roast goat

Best food smell memory - the smell of sharp cheddar cheese always reminds me of family gatherings at my grandparents’ house when I was little. I don’t eat cheese, but I love the smell of cheddar!

Best summer snack - Berries in ridiculous amounts!

Favorite winter snack ? My mom’s butternut squash soup

Food that reminds me of the ocean - kalamata olives. I ate my first one while looking at the ocean in Greece.

Most likely to eat for lunch - Normally, a Hugh Jass salad. Now… really anything.

Least likely to eat for lunch - Fried things. Blech.

Food that makes me gag - Meat, or anything that smells meaty.

Food tradition I love - going out to breakfast (or dinner) at my favorite Mexican restaurant whenever I go to visit my parents.

Food tradition I loath - The focus on meat during holidays. I have never liked turkey, ham, or lamb, and those are the foods that are normally served in my family during holidays. Ick.

Favorite wild food - Wild berries – yum yum yum.

Favorite medicinal food - Aloe vera juice – so expensive, but great!

Food that reflects my heritage - I’m mostly Italian, Irish, and Swedish. So… Um… I don’t what combines all three!

Food most like me - Probably… a young coconut. They have a hard exterior that is relatively hard to break through (cleaver, anyone!?), but once inside, its soft, sweet, delicate, and adaptable!

Favorite raw food smell - The smell of freshly ground nutmeg. It reminds me of my dad. I don’t know why, but it does.

Soup or salad ? Do I have to chose just one? Silly.

Favorite breakfast food - Oatmeal. Duh.

Favorite ethnic cuisine ? Japanese – it is usually light, full of veggies, and healthy!

Favorite vegan ice cream flavor - So Delicious Fruit Sweetened Chocolate – I’m all about the classics!

Favorite type of chocolate ? Dark, with hemp seeds in it. I only tried it for the first time a week or two ago, but I love it!

Favorite beverage - Water and tea.

Smooth or crunchy peanut butter - By itself – crunchy. With other things – smooth. It spreads more easily!

Food I hated as a child but like now - Green (and red) chile. I hated it in all its glorious forms. I left for college, and then I craved it. Love the stuff!

Foods I loved as a child but I hate now - Cheetoes and Goldfish. I think I ate to many of them, and now? Ugh.

Weird food habits ? Currently? I eat ot of one bowl. Just the one. Other wise… I really don’t like eating food that isn’t nice to look at. I’ll do it, but food should be both gastronomically and visually pleasing.

I haven’t been a great blogger, but I have snagged shots of my breakfasts!

Chestnut and Rose Oatmeal

In this: my normal oatmeal, with chestnut butter and rose jelly on top.

My 'twinning' oatmeal.

This is where my nerdiness comes out. The picture isn’t great, as the lighting was TERRIBLE, but its the thought that counts, right? In feldspars and pyroxenes, a characteristic called ‘twinning’ is visible in thin section under cross polarized night. Twinning is the division of chemically different sections of the mineral that appears as differentiated color sections in the slide. Most types of twinning are in stripes, but it occasionally looks like a darker section in a lighter ring – like my oatmeal! I made some plain oats, put ‘em in the bowl, stirred cocoa in the rest, and voila!

Another bowl of vegetables! Gotta love them!

For this bowl of my daily veggie fix, I made some sweet potato… fries? Semi-cheetahs? I don’t know. Anyways – sweet taters on top of a pleathora of yumminess: brocolli, brussels sprouts, onions, shrooms, peppers, and cauliflower.

Giveaways:

Leslie:

Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

Bake Me a Wish

O Yikes

Hot Lunch Dates

Sencha Naturals

Treasured Sweets

Somersaults

Lucky Taste Buds:

Doctor in the Kitchen

Katie:

Raw Cocoa!

Don’t forget to click around for her Operation Chocolate-Covered Kindness!

Leslie:

Stonyfield Farms!

And now… some more Oatmeal Recipes, possibly a talk from a geology lecturer (haven’t decided whether to go yet), lunch with two friends, class, ensemble, registering for classes… I have a pretty busy day!

I had fun filling out the survey, and certain questions really amused me:

Food like me? – If you were a food, what would you be?

Love you all!