Popular?!

En français ici.
Oh my goodness, I stop paying attention to my blog for a little while and all of a sudden here I am tagged with a meme and given a prize. I feel so loved!

Camille from CroqueCamille has awarded me the Arte y Pico award! She (very kindly) says:

Another American in Paris, Hope is a first-rate home cook and aspiring actress. She blogs a bit about life in Paris and a lot about recipes from her impressive cookbook collection. The best part? She converts all the measurements into metric so I don’t have to. And she does all this in both French and English!

I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but you should all check out Camille's blog. I would give the prize right back to her if I could, but I don't think that's allowed. Camille is a pastry chef by profession, but is just as adept at savory cooking. She seems to be enjoying learning about French cooking, trying out new ingredients and trying to find old ones in Paris!



So here are the rules for the Arte y Pico award :

1. Pick five blogs that you consider deserve the award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language.
2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.
4. The award winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of the Arte y Pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award

And here are the blogs I'm sending along the award to (not in order of importance, or any real order at all). I've chosen cooking blogs because if I started branching out to ALL blogs, I could never limit myself to five:

Claire at Colloquial Cookin': her blog is pretty young, but I love the concept: mostly traditional French recipes, in English, with French colloquial expressions (and their English translations) thrown in. She doesn't post all that often, but then her culinary adventures are limited by the tiny size of her kitchen, and I can definitely relate to that!

Rosa at Rosa's Yummy Yums has already received this award, but I love her blog so much that I'm going to send you there anyway. Rosa lives in Switzerland and writes her blog both in French and in English (you can see why I relate)! She's a daring cook who's often trying exotic recipes, but she posts some very simple ones as well, and PLUS she loves cats. What's not to like?

Cicero Sings is not strictly a cooking blog, although there are sometimes recipes involved. It's a blog that chronicles the nature walks and life of the author living in Canada. You can see absolutely gorgeous photos of plants, birds and landscapes that make you want to instantly run up to Canada and take a walk! I'm a bit embarrassed here because the rules say I have to put the name of the person who runs the blog, and, although I've been reading this blog almost as long as I've had my own, I don't know her name! Either Cicero Sings prefers not to be named, or else I really haven't been paying attention. :-(

Kristen at Dine and Dish has been lauded by many more important people than myself in the blogging world. Still, I adore her blog and can't help but encourage you to go read it. She's the mom of 3 kids and works at home where she somehow finds time to do amazing things in the kitchen. Even if you're not a daring cook (and many of her recipes are easy so you don't have to be), you can always check out her mouthwatering food porn. Gets me every time!

Sam lives, cooks and bikes in Leicestershire, England. He writes about all these things in his blog Antics of a Cycling Cook. He loves to cook Mediterranean food; he loves to bake and he even grows some of his own veggies. I love to read his blog because his recipes are the kind of food you could make every day with ingredients you know how to find. Sam was the one who tagged me with this meme, which I'm going to post as well.

Sorry for the long entry, but I haven't been on the computer in forever! Here goes...

1.Last Movie I Saw In A Movie Theater?
The Dark Knight

2. What Book Are You Reading?
House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorn. Almost done though and then I'll be moving on to What the Dickens by Gregory Maguire, I think. So many books to read and life is so short!



3. Favorite (spelling edited for American sensibilities ;-)) Board Game?
Cranium, definitely.

4. Favorite Magazine?
I don't really read magazines. Newspapers though, I read newspapers! I might be the only person left in the country (based on current stats) who does, but I read newspapers.

5. Favorite Smells?
Wood burning, lavender, sea air, pine sap, fresh-baked bread, chicken roasting, and roses, to name a few.

6. Favorite Sounds?
The sound dried autumn leaves make when you step on them, waves on the rocks, wooden wind chimes...

7. Worst Feeling In The World?
I agree with Sam, disappointing people is pretty bad. And helplessness, that sucks.

8. First Thing You Think of When You Wake?
I try to remember how my eyelids work so I can open them. Waking up is not one of my best skills.

9. Favorite Fast Food Place?
I like Boston Market. Also there's this Indian fast food place on Bleeker St. in NYC that's really good, but I can't say I go there often. In Paris, I don't eat fast food.

10. Future Child's Name?
I have a future child?! Ack, get me a pregnancy test! I was so unaware! Oh, wait, you mean theoretically? I don't think I could name a theoretical child. D. likes the name Elphaba for a girl, Elphie. Don't know if I'd put a child through that just for love of literature though.

11. Finish This Statement—“If I Had a Lot of Money, I’d…
Give a lot away. What would I do with a lot of money? Buy a house on the ocean in Rockport maybe ;-)


12. Do You Drive Fast?
No, not really. Except on MA highways. Then if you don't drive fast, you're likely to get in an accident.

13. Do You Sleep With a Stuffed Animal?
Not anymore.

14. Storms—Cool or Scary?
Definitely cool.

15. What Was Your First Car?
A green '98 Honda Accord.

16. Favorite Drink?
Tea I guess.

17. Finish This Statement—“If I Had the Time, I Would…
Visit people like in the olden days, for weeks at a time.

18. Do You Eat the Stems on Broccoli?
Usually.

19. If You could Dye your Hair Any Other Color, What Would It Be?
I've never dyed my hair and I doubt I will anytime soon!

20. Name All the Different Cities In Which You Have Lived.
Waban MA, Watertown MA, Hyde Park MA (all in the Boston area), Hopewell NJ, Stockton NJ, Harrisburg PA, Saratoga Spring NY, New York City (just for a couple summers), and Paris France! Phew. Yikes.



21. Favorite Sport to Watch?
Don't watch much sports

22. One Nice Thing About The Person Who Sent This To You
See above. Also Sam was one of the first people to put me on her blogroll :-)

23. What’s Under Your Bed?
Just random stuff.

24. Would You Like to Be Born As Yourself Again?
Um, no. What kind of question is that. I don't want to relive, I want to keep moving forward and learning new things. If the question is, am I happy to have been me? Then yes!

25. Morning Person or Night Owl?
Night owl. I'm bad at mornings, although it's worth it to see the sun rise over the ocean :-)

26. Over Easy or Sunny Side Up?
Over easy.

27. Favorite Place to Relax?
Rockport

28. Favorite Ice Cream Flavour?
Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia.

29. Of All the People You Have Tagged, Who Is the Most Likely to Respond First?
Eh, dunno. Whoever has time.

I'm not going to specifically tag anyone so no one feels obligated, but all the people whose blogs I linked in this entry can consider themselves tagged if they're up for it ;-)