A Food Meme

1. Favorite milk? Well, I buy 1% and like it. Would I rather have 2% or whole or skim? No, not really - I could buy them. But I don't, so I guess it's 1%.

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook this season? In the winter we definitely lean more towards comfort foods/oven use. I make a lot of pork roasts, roasted chickens (with mashed potatoes, gravy and a veg) and there's the weekly pasta dish.

3. Topping of choice for popcorn? Real butter and salt. Lotsa both..

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure? A few weeks ago I was grilling chicken and within five minutes the grill caught on fire and burned the chicken thighs to a size and color similar to hockey pucks. They tasted only slightly better than pucks and went straight into the trash. Was that my most disasterous? I can't even think, really - it was certainly my most recent.

5. Favorite pickled item? Not a fan of pickled items. I can occasionally stomach a spicy dill pickle and I do liked chopped ham and pickle sandwiches. My girl loves pickled stuff and I got her to try one of those totally gross pickled eggs that they have on the counters of convenience stores all over Maine. She hated it but she totally tried it, and for that, I will be forever impressed.

6. How do you organize your recipes? Um, I don't. Maybe this will fall under the theme of New Year's Resolutions...

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal? We do a mix of the first two. We have a septic system and not town sewer so garbage disposals are a HUGE no-no.

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods...what would they be (don't worry about how you'll cook them)? popcorn, blueberries and Rapid Ray's steamed hotdogs. Protein course, y'know.

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood? Picking fresh veggies from my parent's garden and making salad from whatever I came up with. Looking back, our yard was a postage stamp and still my dad carved out a little piece for veggies and fruit, trying something new every year. Potatoes = Fail. I'll never forget that.

10. Favorite ice cream? chocolate peanut butter cup

11. Most loved kitchen appliance? Not an appliance but it's my cast-iron pan, seasoned to near perfection.

12. Spice/herb you would die without? kosher salt.

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time? Funny, I've read a few of these memes and the Betty Crocker cookbook is on all of them. Mine too. I love the banana bread recipe.

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly? Raspberry. Hands down. Although there IS this little place in Maine that makes wild blueberry jam. Delish.

15. Favorite recipe to serve to a friend? I generally make a soup or chili during the winter when we have other families over. In the summer it could be anything from grilled chicken to some sort of shrimp or steaks but whatever I make won't require oven use.

16. Do you eat tofu? I cannot, for the life of me, get past the look and texture.

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)? Definitely dinner. Breakfast is okay but I hate cleaning up the kitchen like that at the start of the day and lunch? Nah.

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator? A basket with our sunglasses, walkie talkies and my old camera. Plus a little jar for milk money and an envelope for Box Tops for Education.

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking. Ice Cream Sandwich ice cream, a lasagna and a bucket of margaritas.

20. What's on your grocery list? A smoked shoulder. My family loves a good boiled dinner.

21. Favorite grocery store? Shaws, I guess. Although I do go to Trucci's for meats. Market Basket is to scuzzy and Stop -n-Shop is too expensive. Roche Brothers is nice to shop in but I couldn't afford it weekly. The nearest Whole Foods is forty five minutes away - I've never even been.

22. Name a recipe you'd love to try, but haven't yet. Prime rib. I was a little afraid to ruin one, they're not cheap. But after this past weekend...they're SO easy. What was I afraid of?

23. Food blog you read the most. She's not a food blog, per se, but I get a decent amount of recipes from The Pioneer Woman.

24. Favorite chocolate? Dark.

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately? Meat. I'm kidding. Things aren't quite that dire. But, extravagant? Nothing.

26. What vegetables do you enjoy most? Corn on the cob and steamed carrots.