The Versatile Blogger Award

SHOWING THE LOVE....

I think I have mentioned, in a previous post, that I've gotten into the FoodBuzz blogosphere.  It's been fun and has introduced me to bloggers from all over our planet.  I really appreciate Mary Tannenbaum for telling me about it.  Sometimes I just sit at my computer and don't know what's going on in the rest of the blogging world.  This has really opened my eyes!

It's a social network - you ask bloggers (called Foodies on this site) to be your friend, they ask you, you accept, they accept...sounds familiar I'm sure.  It's just the primary function is sharing blogs and recipes and restaurant reviews instead of comments about what's up in your life at the moment (although we all include plenty of that in our blogs!).

Like any social network - you find a few that you start visiting regularly - they become your most active "friends" and you start to feel like you know them.  For instance there is a woman, living in Stockholm, who makes a lot of stuff I like and she apparently likes my blog too.  Her blog is called The Coach's Wife's Kitchen...  and she is a very entertaining writer as well as an obviously good cook.  I often wonder how she gets all of the ingredients to make the stuff she makes!  I'm just intrigued with international bloggers who manage to use familiar ingredients!

This morning, after returning from a grueling Zumba, I almost plopped on the couch before starting my plans for the day...but instead I decided to check my email and there I found a note that I had a FoodBuzz message/comment from Dawnie, the blogger in Stockholm.  I click over to FoodBuzz and I am so thrilled to read that she has awarded me a Versatile Blogger Award as one of her favorite 15 blogs!  I've only been blogging a year and I keep getting really excited about these little bits of recognition I get from time to time.  So, Dawnie, thank you, thank you...you made my day!

Here's how the Versatile Blogger Award works.  I select 15 bloggers I think are amazing and pass on the award to them as well.  I am supposed to share 7 facts about myself in a blog post where I announce my selection and my 15 choices for recognition...so here goes.  I don't know who started this...but I am sure happy to participate!

7 Facts About Myself

1.  I am addicted to flip flops - I have diligently culled all other shoes from my closet.  I retained a pair of winter boots, 2 pairs of athletic shoes, and got rid of anything with a heel.  Living at the Gulf Coast it was a must.  Even the few dressy affairs can be attended with some dress flip flops.  I am not ashamed.

2.  I have a 35 year old son, a 27 year old son, a 27 year old step-daughter, an 18 year old son, 3 grandchildren, a wonderful husband...and I'm only 39.  How could that be???  Hee hee hee.  OK, really, I turn 55 this year and I don't know how that happened.  Where did the years go.  I think I'm in serious denial.  Really, I feel significantly younger!!! 

3.  I have become enamored of baking yeasty delicious bread, pastries, cakes, cookies, and other decadent treats...but my life is filled with much more beyond baking and cooking and blogging.  Really - somewhere in there, I make time for Zumba, advocating for the hearing impaired, autism, birds, butterflies, nature in general, and the ocean in particular.  I consider myself well-rounded...and, well, round!  I love my life.

4.  I must have chocolate every single day.  Really. (hmmmm...I also say really a lot)

5.  There's not much I love more than lying lazily under an umbrella on a fairly deserted beach listening to the waves roll in.

6.  I drink a lot of Diet Coke - but not half as much as my husband drinks!  I think we keep the Coca Cola company in business.  I get all of my magazine subscriptions by entering Coke Rewards on their web site.  Love free subscriptions!

7.  I may be on the verge of becoming a hoarder of baking things.  I desire every unusual baking dish or pan I see...I want all the "stuff" that could easily fill two full-sized bedrooms with shelves lining the wall.  Fortunately, living in a small coastal condo prohibits me from indulging in my fantasty :-) and forcing me to exercise at least a modicum of self-control.

OK - now that's out of the way....let's see who I enjoy reading the most.  I will say, they are not all Foodie Blogs!  Also, I know some of these may have already won this award - but it is what it is - they are my favorites (and Dawnie, I assume I'm not supposed to add your blog to my list of 15, but of course, it would be there...I check what you are doing every day and can't wait for a cold front in the sub-tropics to try the Chicken Chili Verde...looks wonderful!)

MY VOTES FOR THE VERSATILE BLOGGER AWARD
(In no particular order - that would just be TOO hard)

1.  Chef in Training

2.  The Sweet Details

3.  Sweet as Sugar Cookies

4.  Something Swanky

5.  Postres de La Cipota

6.  Everyday Sisters

7.  Creations by Kara

8.  Darn Near Domestic

9.  Cochlear Implant Online

10.  My Life as an Ungraceful, Unhinged, and Unwilling Draftee Into the Autism Army

11.  LouLou Sucre

12.  An American Mom in Tuscany:  Jordan's Cochlear Implant Story

13.  Dream of Cakes

14.  One Brick Shy...

15.  Piece of Cake...


OK...now I better get into the kitchen.  I have Vanilla Bean Madeleine batter chilling in the fridge and I have the dough rising for a French Loaf.  You know you will hear about that as soon as finish and photograph and write!!!

Thanks again Dawnie ... KEEP WARM ...and Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!