1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 5 facts about yourself
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.
I've done a couple of memes already, so I thought I'd be creative with my five facts. Since I went to see 27 Dresses with some girlfriends this weekend, I decided to base my facts on things having to do with that movie -- New York City, dogs, family, and weddings. Here goes:
1. Call me unromantic, but I like rehearsal dinners better than weddings. At least in our family, rehearsal dinners are smaller, less formal, more creative, and a lot more fun. My brother's rehearsal dinner (almost a year ago) was at a pub that had karaoke, and this photo of my brother's bride, her sister, and my Uncle Dan tells it all -- doesn't that look more fun than a wedding? At cousins' rehearsal dinners, I've been to a Western Dutch Oven cookout and a South Carolina oyster roast. Our rehearsal dinner was at the Waukegan Yacht Club which overlooks the Waukegan Harbor on Lake Michigan. The food at that dinner (a choice of Filet Mignon or Planked Whitefish) was so much better than the boring, forgettable chicken at my wedding. See what I mean?
2. I feel very lucky that I have a grandma who is still around at the age of 92. She lives in Wisconsin. Grandma isn't able to do much cooking now, but she was a very good cook, and I still use a lot of her recipes. She has a "green thumb" and always had a big vegetable garden, plus lots of house plants. She has a quick wit and a memory that's better than mine. I love her dearly and wish I could see her more often.
3. I have 23 cousins. That's me with five of them at my cousin's Dutch Oven cookout rehearsal dinner in Idaho. I'm the tall, slender one on the left. Just kidding, that's Molly, who had given birth just a few months earlier, making it even sadder that she looks so much better than me. And even though most of my cousins are similarly tall and thin, I dearly love them all. I'm the oldest cousin on both sides of the family, so I've watched them all grow up. We are scattered around the U.S.A. (and, at times, around the globe), so it's always special whenever I have a chance to spend time with them and get to know them as adults. (This being a food blog I should mention that several are good cooks and we even have a chef!)
4. I love dogs. So do my husband and sons. I've written about our little white dog, Charlie. Our family's first dog was Charlie's opposite -- she was a black lab/husky mix named Darby. She loved the water and would find a way into every puddle, pond, baby pool, or lake she came across (we had to fish her out of our in-ground pool twice). She was a retriever that wasn't big on retrieving. We taught her how to play "fetch," but she'd only do it once. If you threw the object a second time, she'd look at you like she was thinking, "I just got that thing, and I'm not getting it again." She was sweet and gentle when each of my babies came into her life. She died in the spring of 2005 and I still miss her.
5. I can't get enough of visiting New York City (left) and Chicago (right). I love both cities' architecture, art, food, culture, history and overall energy. I especially like visiting them when someone else is picking up the tab. That's happened to me once in each city (one city per son), thanks to my cooking contest hobby.
TAG:
I'm supposed to tag 5 people but lots of people have already done this one! I'm wimping out with four. You four, do this if you like, or don't worry about it:
1. Bibliochef
2. Laura at Lazy Susin
3. Barbara Bakes
4. Chou from Balance