Life Is Good...

My good friend Pierce, AKA Tina Marie of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor, gave me a wonderful tribute in a recent post, and bestowed upon me something entitled the "Life is Good" award.

I have met tons of great people through blogging, both this blog and my regular blog, and Tina has become such a great friend to me, such a source of strength and encouragement, that I really feel blessed to have her in my life - even though we have never met! So, thank you, Tina, for being there for me, for your support and for your constant friendship! I do hope we can meet in person one day in the not-too-distant future!

Of this award, Tina says on her blog: "The rules are, to accept this award, I shall answer the 10 questions below and pass the award to six fellow bloggers."

I may not be passing this along...I don't normally do that part of these awards, but I will answer the 10 questions!

1. If you blog anonymously, are you happy doing it that way; if you are not anonymous do you wish you had started out anonymously so you could be anonymous now?

I am only semi-anonymous, though I started out wanting to be completely anonymous. It's easy enough to find my name out if you've been reading this blog (or the other one) for any amount of time. I am happy with this, however, or else I would never give the hints to my real name. It's only been a problem on my other blog, which is why I changed the site over to WordPress & took it off search engine crawling.

2. Describe one incident that shows your inner stubborn side.

Just one? Really? Hmmmmm... I have so many examples it's ridiculous. But let's stick with something simple: putting together furniture. I buy a piece that comes in a flat pack, and I will NOT give up on it until it's up and functional, even if it takes all night, even if the instructions are ridiculous (like Ikea's), even if I can't hammer straight - you name it!

3. What do you see when you really look at yourself in the face in the mirror?

Very complicated question. I see a Plain Jane who is pushing 40 and showing it.

4. What is your favorite summer cold drink?

Simple: iced tea or girly cocktails! And frappuccinos!

5. When you take time for yourself, what do you do?

I go lay down on my super comfy new couch (which came assembled!) and watch TV all day. Or I read & listen to music. I used to take long baths, but in my new place, there is no tub, only a cramped shower stall. :(

6. Is there something you still want to accomplish in your life? What is it?

I have a lot of things I want to accomplish in life, and I feel time is running out with some of them. I want to get married & have a baby. I want to travel. I want to write a novel. That is my starting list.

7. When you attended school, were you the class clown, the class overachiever, the class shy person, or always ditching school? Describe who you were if not one of these.

I was the quiet kid who actually got along with her teachers and was thus labeled a brown-noser. I was also the bullied kid who was drastically marginalized & traumatized.

8. If you close your eyes and want to visualize a very poignant moment in your life, what do you see?

Never mind!

9. Is it easy for you to share your true self in your blog or are you more comfortable writing posts about other people or events?

Both.

10. If you had the choice to sit and read or talk on the phone, which would you do and why?

God, I love a good chin wag on the phone and I don't do it often enough! But I also like to read. Either or.

So there you go! Thanks again, Tina!!!

I've Been Nominated for a CBA!

OH MY GOD - this little blog has been nominated for a Canadian Blog Award! I wasn't even aware of this until this morning when a long time reader of my regular blog, Sassy, left me a comment with a heads up.

So, I would love it if my readers could take a moment and follow this link to vote for my little old blog here! That would be totally cool - thank you!

And to whoever nominated me: THANK YOU!

Addendum: Once you chose a ranking, make sure you go down to the bottom of the ballot and click "vote" and you will get a confirmation.

Award Time!

Quick post today! In fact, many of the posts you'll see this week will be quick! I continue with NaNoWriMo!

OK, I have been blessed with some awesome blog friends, and two of them, Pierce and Karen, have bestowed upon me this lovely award:
Along with this award comes a responsibility: I must give you seven facts about myself. So, here you go!

1. I sit in front of a SAD lamp every morning now. I call the SAD lamp Mr. Happy.

2. I worked as a dishwasher to help pay for university.

3. No one touches my KitchenAid mixer but ME!

4. I once ordered sea urchin pizza in Sicily, but the restaurant was out of sea urchins, so I had to order something else.

5. I have eaten fajitas in Helsinki.

6. I have sprained my right ankle several times just walking.

7. I admire a man who can cook!

Saturday Laugh & Awards

Via ICHC.

A couple of my favourite food bloggers have bestowed me with some awards!

Palidor of Crazy Asian Gal awarded me with this friendship award. Thank you, Palidor! You rock! In return, I'd like to pass this on to my great friend Pierce of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor. Pierce also rocks!



Nat of Girls Are Made Of... gave me this lovely loyalty award. Thank you, Nat! You yourself are one rocking food blogger! I'd like to pass this one on to Cathy of Accountants Can Cook? Cathy is one of my daily "must reads" and I love her humour and no-nonsense style. What does Cathy do, everyone? Yeah, you guessed it, she ROCKS!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Some Simple Bread, Award, MM Shout Out

Well, it's cooled off - thank God! I can now get back to some regular bread baking.

This week, I needed something quick & simple so I chose a recipe I use every so often from my Le Cordon Bleu: Complete Cook cookbook. I love this book; it's my go-to book for basic French stuff & simple, traditional baking.

You can find the recipe in this post. I subsituted 1 cup of whole wheat flour for 1 cup of the bread flour, but otherwise everything is the same. I decided to treat myself to a braided loaf.

Which I topped with an egg wash & sesame seeds...

And here is the finished product:

I realized while making this how much I miss making my own bread, and how satisfying this is for me. So, bring on the fall!

And now, another award! This time from Girlichef who has an awesome blog that contantly makes me want to drool! She gave me this "Tasty Blogger" award, for which I am most grateful! I try to be as tasty as possible, trust me. Thank you, Girlichef!

Finally, just a reminder that I am still hosting Magazine Mondays, and if you have a magazine recipe you've recently made and posted, send me an email at wandering_coyoteATyahooDOTca, and I'll post your link in my MM post on Monday.

More Awards!

Finsmom of Latest Addictions bestowed upon me these lovely awards today:


Thank you Finsmom - I really appreciate it!

I always feel awkward about re-awarding these because there are so many food bloggers out there I just adore and I hate to leave anyone out! So, I'm going to choose five random - totally random - food blogs I visit regularly.

Accountants Can Cook? (I love Cathy!)
My Tasty Treasures (combining sex & food like no other)
Curious Domestic (a fellow British Columbian)
My Year on the Grill (Dave is new to blogging - go say hi!)
Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor (Pierce is a good friend of mine and a great cook!)

Thank you to all my readers - old and new - for your continued support!

Award/Meme Time

Cathy over at Accountants Can Cook? awarded/tagged me with this passionate blogger award. Thanks Cathy!

The rules are:

1. Put logo on blog.
2. List five things you are passionate about besides blogging.
3. Tag five people and let them know you've tagged them

OK, so five things I'm passionate about apart from blogging...

1. Music, in particular: Linkin Park, Nightwish, Evanescence, Within Temptation, Lacuna Coil, Midnattsol, Leaves' Eyes, Xandria and many others in the various folk/Gothic/symphonic/melodic/female-fronted metal offshoots.

2. Reading. I am a total bookworm!

3. Hiking, camping, and outdoorsy stuff. And I live in the perfect area for this kind of stuff, too!

4. My friends and family!

5. Various mental health and social issues.

You know, I'm not going to tag anyone (hope you're down with that, Cathy). My foodblogging community is pretty small and I'm pretty sure this one is going to make the rounds pretty quick.

Foodie Parcel & Award Time!

I have been very lucky to "meet" some very generous folks through my blogs. One of them is Jodi, who's been a reader of ReTorte and Wandering Coyote almost since I started them. Amongst other things, like the very and literally cool bed fan (yes Donna - FFW, I do sleep with machinery, thank you very much!) that has greatly improved the quality of my sleep this week, Jodi sent me a huge parcel filled with all kinds of goodies.

Top row, L - R: Williams Sonoma Hot Chocolate, Red Sour Cherry Preserve & Topping, Raspberry & Cherry Preserve & Topping, Cream Nut Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Clusters, Billington's Sugar Crystals.

Bottom row, L- R: Jodi's homemade scotcheroos (yum!), a selection of Dove chocolate bars, Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate.

Um, I'm already half way through the peanut butter clusters - they are insanely fantastic. I have also eaten about half of the scotcheroos - they are delish! I'm so looking foward to trying everything else!

This box (and the remainder of what was in it can be seen here, along with my cat making herself comfy in some of the contents) totally made my day - my month, in fact - and I am very grateful that I have such thoughtful people in my life!

And speaking of thoughtful people, I received and award from the aforementioned and absolutely hilarious Donna - FFW.

Along with this award comes this message:

"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated."It also says : "Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

So, I am going to pass this award along to:

• Pierce, of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor
• Ivonne, of Creampuffs in Venice
• Rosa, of Rosa's Yummy Yums
• Megan, of Megan's Munchies
• Not strictly a food blog, though he does make yummy stuff from time to time and posts about it, Van of Van Santos
• Joanna of A Cup of Jo
• The amazing Jodi
• Joie de Vivre of Joie de Vivre
  

Thank you, Donna-FFW - you honour me. And thanks to everyone out there who makes my life richer each day just by blogging your heart out!