Versatile Blogger Award

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It was lovely to get this versatile blogger award from Keri a couple of months ago. It's a good feeling to be noticed and it gives me the opportunity to tell you about 15 versatile blogs that are new to me, and then pay it forward to them. I'm just sorry it's taken me so long to get around to do my bit. So thank you Keli it brought a beaming smile to my face.

Here's what I have to do:

1. Thank the person who awarded it to you and link to their blog. ( I can tick that one )
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass this one to 15 newly discovered or new to you blogs.

Here goes...Seven things about myself...

I think you already know too much about me, but you may not know that:

1. Since I was a little girl I've wanted to see the Aurora Borealis. The magical Northern Lights.

2. I love insects. Especially dragonflies and snails and spiders...which is really useful as my husband is the most extreme arachnophobe ever...

3. I have a 5cm diagonal scar right across an artery on my right wrist from an accident I had when I was a little girl. I try to hide it because I don't want anyone to think I'm a mad woman whose tried to slash her wrists.

4."TOP SECRET - KEEP OUT"

We were the 'Famous Four,' me and my three sisters. (I'm the little blonde with a too-short fringe, peeping out second from the left.) We would meet regularly in our grandparents garden shed. I seem to remember a row of little seats attached to the walls...in hindsight it was probably a low shelf for storing tools. If I remember correctly, our meetings involved lots of chocolate digestive biscuits, and Ribena. Or sometimes morning coffee biscuits with honey on top and ice-cream soda...That's fizzy cream-soda pop, with a spoonful of ice-cream in that went all fizzy and creamy.

5.I also remember that we signed a secret document with our names in blood. I think that some members, including myself, were a little less enthusiastic about this bit than the biscuit part and had to be encouraged. In the end we compromised and signed our name in pencil and then pricked our fingers and marked it with a drop of blood. We then hid our secret document in a little tin box in my grandparents back garden...I wonder if it's still there..

6.I love rain. The drizzly scotch mist type that falls when you're walking in the Lake district and gives you rosy cheeks and perfect skin. The continental thunderstorm downpours in the middle of the summer that drench you to the skin in a second...The sound of rain drumming on the roof of the car or the bedroom windows.  Best of all when I'm tucked up in bed on a cold winter night with a good book and the shipping forecast on radio 4 (not to mention hubby).

7. I would like to live 'On Golden Pond'...I love the ramshackle house that Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonder's characters, the Thayers, visit for the summer. That it's ensconced in a wood on the edge of a lake. That the postman delivers their mail by boat. That Ethel Thayer wanders into the woods to collect firewood and wild berries, and that evenings are spent reading books by a crackling log fire or playing board games...or skinny dipping in the lake!  

...well maybe just for the summer...

Now for the passing on bit:

I've been reading so many new versatile blogs recently mostly thanks to Ginny of Small Things Yarn Along blog hop.   Here are some that have an interesting mix of lovely photos's, interesting projects, interesting reads, yummy food and best of all family times. I'm passing this award on to you all:

1. Lori Ann at lori times five 

2. Tracey at clover 

3. Angelina over here 

3. Tonya at plain and joyful living

4. Natalie at plain-jane-remembrance

4. Jodie of  homespunbliss

5. Proudmama at mindless ramblings

6. Cheryl at time to craft

7. Swanski at pumpkin sunrise

8. Jen at the evolving homemaker and 

   reality writes

9. Pinkundine at misadventures in craft

10.Hurraiyic over here

11.Hege at cloudberry

12.come on in x

13.Denise at keep calm and carry on

14.Meadow at meadow magic

15.Emma at just having a yarn

I hope that they will pay it forward too...

(whoops sorry - I had to edit as one of the videos didn't work)

Orderliness and Harmony

Yey, I've just read the first link to the Orderliness and Harmony meme that I started last week all about the contents of your store cupboard/Pantry over at the lovely Bird with the Golden Seed blog written by my friend Caz.

Don't you just love seeing what other people have hiding in their cupboard? their secret stashes? why not go and check it out.....for some reason I haven't been able to link to other blogs or postings this week...something to do with blog upgrading or maintenance going on......but here's the web address you may be able to link to this http://www.birdwiththegoldenseed.blogspot.com/

...Caz's never fail recipe sounds scrumptious I'll definitely be trying it out......

Orderliness and Harmony?

Gaston Bachelard in the chapter entitled 'drawers, chests and wardrobes' in The Poetics of Space, quoted Colette Wartz:

"Orderliness. Harmony.

Piles of sheets in the wardrobe

Lavender in the linen."

Colette Wartz 'paroles pour l'autre, p26

For me orderliness and harmony are:

Jars of pulses in the pantry

Vinegars and oils in the cupboards

Fish in the freezer

Writing this meme has actually been a revelation to me. I love my pantry for the feeling of satisfaction it gives me to know that the kilner jars are well stocked with rice and grains and standby bad weather hoards of canned tomatoes and tuna fish. That the top of the cupboard resembles a mini bowling alley with it's little collection of skittle like bottles of oils and vinegars brought back from trips to Europe. The baking cupboard is full of flour and yeast...the tea and coffee cupboard it's usual assortment of teas and coffees....and it goes on....

I always thought I had simple requirements...you know the biblical jar of flour and jug of oil simplicity but this exercise made me realise just how many different ingredients I feel that I need.

Here's a little peep inside some of my secret stores.......and a few questions that I asked myself...

.....Step into my pantry.....

and a few questions that I asked myself...

Nigella Lawson keeps a secret stash of pigs ears in her freezer that she deep fries for a crispy solitary snack. Do you have anything similarly sordid in yours?

Not at the moment thank goodness. I have often under duress had a sheep's head there! It's a Persian delicacy (also Icelandic I'm told) which I'm sure is delicious and up there with the trendy pigs cheeks that seems to be on the menu of all best restaurants at the moment (well in the UK) but as I don't eat red meat I'm afraid I can't vouch for.

What foods would I always find in your fridge and why?

1.Eggs, because they are so versatile and we do lots of baking, and scrambled or poached or made into an omelet they make a substantial meal....in like five minutes...

2.Butter....the baking thing again

3.Parmesan cheese. I love cheese, runny Caprice des Dieux Camembert (literally 'whim of the gods,') tangy varicously veined Oxford Blue, versatile Cheddar, creamy Boursin coated with crushed black pepper seeds that explode on your taste buds when you catch one with your teeth. But I know that cheese is not that good for us - all that animal fat, and I've cut down. But Parmesan is magical. From what looks like an ugly little old dried brick of cheese........

....just add a grater and hey presto magical mounds of golden angel hair produce an intensely cheesy hit that can turn a bowl of pasta into food fit fit a 'principe.' So you only need a little bit for instant flavour.....

4.Portobello mushrooms because I'm obsessed with them, just sautéd in a little olive oil and garlic, crunchy toast twist of sea salt and black pepper and I'm in food heaven....it can beat a steak hands down every time....ooh and with tomatoes even better.....

Do you have a stand-by, never fail recipe, that you like to have the ingredients on-hand for unexpected visitors?

Mine would be my favourite prawn and chili spaghetti. We aren't great pasta eaters but I like to always keep the spaghetti jar stocked. Chilli, root ginger and garlic are ingredients I use all the time, so have on hand and I go through mountains of sweet peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes and onions a week (trying to eat the rainbow) so there's usually no problem there....

but I feel so much happier if I know deep down on the fish shelf of the freezer there are a couple of packs of raw prawns....thankfully at the moment there are...so all is well in my little world.....

It's a very quick and easy recipe to make which you can link to here if you'd like. As long as you've got enough pasta it can stretch to feed a multitude. Just make sure that each person gets a few prawns......really tasty and quick and easy to make even if you're a bit flustered....and spaghetti always seems a fun food to eat....

What is your favourite comfort food?

Comfort food, by definition for me has to be something that you can eat out of a bowl with a spoon or a fork but no knife. Preferably on a sofa in front of the television on a Friday evening, not at the dining table. It has to have some form of potatoes in it and be creamy and resemble some kind of nursery food (sad isn't it...)

A big bowl of mashed potatoes with Parmesan melted in or a really soft baked potato with garlic mushrooms, preferably twice-baked would be real comfort food for me....

...I think the potato element is a real throw-back to my childhood diet. Every meal included potatoes...not mounds of them, but at least some. Mum didn't think she'd provided a good wholesome meal if it didn't include meat or fish and at least two vegetables, one of which had to be potatoes. Now a days I don't consider potatoes to be a staple but an ingredient, so although I always like to have some in the pantry we wouldn't dream of eating them every day. But I would definitely consider them to be comfort food.....potatoes....or a big bowl of creamy risotto or rice pudding.....ooh I'm getting so hungry writing this.....or a homemade egg custard...ooh....or baked eggs with spinach.......must stop.....

Do you have a chocolate drawer or secret hoard of sweet or savoury snacks?

Thank goodness my chocolate drawer is virtually empty now....H has gone back to uni so I don't feel the need to keep it stocked and it's just too tempting for me if I'm busy at home and get a sudden urge for sugar and can't be bothered taking the lid of the raisin jar. But 'A' does keep bringing me home boxes of Quality Street that his students give him or if there's a late meeting he'll bring me home a piece of luscious chocolate cheese cake....it's so sweet of him.....but not good for me.

But the one thing that I really do like to have in the chocolate drawer and which I persuade myself is healthy is Green & Black'sorganic Dark Chocolate with crystallised ginger.....well it has a really high cocoa solid content....and ginger's good for you...not sure about crystallised ginger though... ]it is a bit sweet.....sadly there isn't any there at the moment..

But what's inside your store cupboard? I wonder if like me, you too squirrel things away like a little mammal preparing for a hard winter? Or maybe you favour zen-like sparsity? Don't you just love nosing inside someone else's cupboards?

I've tagged some of my blogger friends Caz who writes a very imformative blog over at the lovely Bird with the Golden Seed blog and Lucy whose cookery writer at The Kitchen-maid and Alyshajane at her lovely fun blog of the same name and a few others may be joining too....everyone's welcome and you can pinch any of these images if you want to use one for a link......

Ooh and then they are going to tag some people too...