Oh no! I totally forgot about that meme thing!
How embarrassing! Katie from GlutenFreeKatie tagged me for this meme all the way back in February. And… I have been so busy that I didn’t get to it until May. (And, let’s be honest, I’m just barely squeaking in at the end of May.) I thought it was sweet of her to think of me, so I’m going to swallow my shame and complete the darned thing. Here Goes. Oh, by the way, I did one of these before- a meme called 8 random facts. Since this is a “seven things” meme it should be that much easier, right? Right? Oh dear.
This is the rule of 7:
1. i must link the tagger to my blog and list the rules;
2. i must share 7 weird bits about myself
3. 7 new bloggerites must be tagged and must be made aware with a comment in their blog.
Hmmm… seven weird things about me. Let’s see how eclectic I can be with this.
1. I’m a language junkie. I have studied Spanish, Japanese (modern, classical, and a form using all Chinese characters called Kanbun), Chinese (modern Mandarin and classical), and reading French. Before you get too impressed, let me just say that Japanese is the only language that I can use in interesting or useful ways. Pretty much the only thing I can do with my Spanish is ask how someone is and where the kitchen is. muy mal, no? If I had time I’d love to pick up a bit of Korean, and I’d also like to do a refresher in Chinese. It’s been a long, long time since I took it in college.
2. I’m a sucker for romantic comedies and Star Trek and/or sci-fi. Surprised?
3. My favorite thing to do in college was dance all night and eat coffee ice cream. Yup, I was a wild child.
4. I’m an academic, or working on being one, anyway. I’ve just finished my coursework in a PhD program and am just about to start studying for exams until my eyeballs bleed. Oh, good times ahead. I am in a religious studies department and I focus on modern/contemporary Japanese religion and I am interested in rituals. Weird enough for you? haha.
5. I have a thing for boys with goatees. I think it all goes back to my days at an uber-liberal arts college in the rainy Northwest. If by chance he’s holding an espresso in one hand and a volume of Kant in the other hand, then it’s all over. If you hadn’t noticed, the DH has a goatee. ;)
6. Seven is a lot, isn’t it?
6. My thumb isn’t especially green, but I love to grow organic heirloom tomatoes on my balcony every summer. I name all the plants and yes, have been known to talk to them (but only if they look mopey). Scared yet?
7. I hate jazz music, tap dancing, and clowns. Is that wrong? I really did give all three a fair shot. Please don’t ever take me to a show featuring clowns tap dancing to jazz music unless you want to see me go absolutely bonkers.
Ooh, and now I get to pick people to participate in this here meme:
1. Manda at Asparagus Thin
2. Jacki at Cooking Illustrated
3. The Good Eatah at the same
4. Cheryl with Gluten Free Goodness AT GFandHealthy.com
5. The Gluti Girls
6. Becky at Radish Boy
7. Thomas at GFCF Experience
Dear bloggers,
If you don’t have time to participate, no worries. I deliberately picked some GF blogs that I have only recently discovered in the hopes of getting to know some new (to me) bloggers better. Well, except for you, Thomas. I’ve known you for a while now but would still enjoy reading your meme. I hope to read all of your fun, weird facts soon! -Sea
Every family has its own combination of holiday traditions, usually including its fair share of special recipes for holiday sweets. When I was growing up, we often made potato salad, a carrot apple salad with raisins (haroset- a long story) and deviled eggs for holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. But it never occurred to me that when I grew up and got married, I’d get the chance to share in an extra wealth of traditions. A few years back when we were visiting DH’s family around Christmas time, DFIL was about to make his famous Norwegian Christmas Bread for the family when all of a sudden he paused, and turned to me. “Is there a way we could make this gluten-free?” he asked. I wasn’t quite sure how to answer the challenge, especially since I didn’t have all my bread flours with me. Luckily the local King Soopers grocery store carried Bob’s Red Mill Wonderful GF Sandwich Bread mix- and it occurred to us to combine FIL’s family recipe with the instructions for the bread and see what happened. Well, what happened was DELICIOUS! The bread mix had always been reliable, but the flavors had never excited me that much. Combined with the candied peel and fruit mix, a generous dose of raisins and freshly ground cardamom, it was like a whole different bread mix. The cinnamon sugar topping was the perfect note, adding a satisfying cinnamon coat to the loaf. The experiment was pronounced a success, and I was thrilled to be able to have a slice of my very own GF Christmas bread while the family enjoyed their regular Christmas bread slices for breakfast the next morning. DH can personally eat his way through several loaves a season, so I think it was a matter of some urgency that I learn the secret of the family Christmas bread. Actually, the first year we lived in Japan DH was depressed to be missing out on Christmas bread on the holidays- so his parents actually mailed him some freshly made Christmas bread! That may be the most expensive bread ever made- but DH was thrilled. The next year I had friends living in Yokohama that invited me to shop at their commisary- I stocked up on fruitcake mix specifically to make this bread! DFIL still remembers his mother making the bread for them around the Christmas season on the Wisconsin farm he grew up. DH has so many memories of Christmas bread around the holiday season that whenever one is baking in the oven he exclaims joyously that “It smells like Christmas!” And now DH and I can enjoy our own Christmas holidays with a slice of gluten free Christmas bread, also known as Julekake. Someday hopefully we’ll even introduce our child, gluten-free or otherwise, to this recipe so the tradition can continue! DFIL says the secret is to use freshly ground cardamom. He usually buys the whole pods at Whole Foods and uses about 1/2 cup of pods grinding the cardamom fresh for each recipe. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? And the cardamom really does seem to be the magical ingredient in this recipe.
