I Earned It!

OK, I said I'd stay away until the New Year rolled around, but I just couldn't resist sharing what a dear friend sent to me in a Christmas card this year:

How cute is that?!

I was never a Girl Scout as a child. I was too busy playing softball, riding horses, and dancing after school to be part of any other organization. Plus I hate uniforms for the most part, as well as people who sell things door to door.

However, I am so very very proud to have earned this honorary Cooking Merit Badge.

At least, I've earned it according to Beth.

And she's a very smart girl.

So I'm just gonna go with it, and it is now hanging in my kitchen!

Thanks again, lady, and Happy Holidays!

(& Happy Birthday Beth!!!!)

And for those of you still snowed-in, I feel your pain. As we were originally snowed-in in NJ, I spent my day making French Onion Soup and roasting 2 chickens. When we finally felt the need to get back home to NYC, it took a Jeep in very slow traffic to a train, which was then shifted off track to another station that it was not supposed to go to (I saw flames on the snow-covered tracks as we passed them but I doubt that was the reason, but still, FLAMES on SNOW-COVERED tracks. WTF?!?!) which lead us to the PATH train as suddenly NJ Transit was not leaving NJ, which then dumped us in the wrong part of Manhattan, and we then walked in the wrong direction carrying 4 bags and 2 cats, as though we were freakin' TOURISTS! 

So we had to take 2 more packed local trains home.

But we made it.

And all is well.

Merry Merry.

Stay warm.

And pay young people to shovel for you.

End Of Days

So I was passed the End Of Days award by a loyal reader (who frequently leaves very nice comments on my blog, so I thought I should make sure I was quick about following through with this post) and I must say this is going to be a simple one for me to answer.

I believe the basic question is: If you knew the Mayans were right about the end of the world happening in 2012, What Would You Do?

My answer is simple and entirely predictable if you know me at all.
I would move to Italy and spend the rest of my days eating and drinking fabulous things, and staring at all the beauty that country has to offer, both natural and man made.

Along those lines, I'll treat you w/ a few pics from my honeymoon in 2006...

Doge's Palace, Venice

A street corner, Murano

Ponte Vecchio, Florence

San Gimignano 

Doorway, San Gimignano

Pantheon, Rome

Path in Capri

Faraglioni, Capri

Our balcony, Positano

Sigh... the hubs practically had to drag me onto the plane home...

The issue of passing this along is a bit of a hitch because it seems most of my regular commenters do not have a link to a blog... at least not a link to a blog that our Apocalypse Creator did not already pass this along to.
So if you'd like to answer this, give me a shout in the comments and I can send it along to you.

Yes YOU!

Oh My Blog Award

I have been proudly displaying the "Oh My Blog Award" picture on the side of my blog, without actually having written the blog entry. It was passed along to me by my friend Una, and as it was just her 30th birthday, I thought I'd finally get around to fulfilling her kind gesture.

The options for executing this Blog Award are as follows:
1 - Take a photo of yourself first thing in the morning
2 - Blog while exceedingly drunk for 15 minutes
3 - Write about your most embarrassing moment. Or at least one of them
4 - Make a vlog a.k.a. a video blog
5 - Share the soundtrack of your childhood
Ok...
1 - Not a chance, buck-o
2 - My mother reads this blog, so I'm trying to keep some dignity
3 - I'd have to be drunk, and also, dignity
4 - I think the awkwardness of attempting this would lead to an epic Fail
5 - works for me

However, Una, I have no idea what a cooking soundtrack would entail... songs about food? Music I listen to while cooking? Too random. I'll stick with convention and follow childhood.

On of my first memories when I think of music in my childhood involves my older brother. My 6'4", four years older than me brother. You can imagine that no games or physical sports were in any way fair when played between us. However, we used to play ping pong in our basement, and at the start of the game, he would put on a random tape of 80's hair band music, and being a good sport, offered me between 3 and 5 extra points if I could name the band before the singing started.
I never got my extra points.
Somehow as a child I could not tell the difference between Guns 'n' Roses and Aerosmith, or Cinderella and Quiet Riot. I just couldn't. Luckily, my "ear" has improved with age.

A veeeeeery early childhood memory (caught on film) is my love of the song "Gloria" by Laura Branigan. I could not get enough of it. My parents even filmed me once, dancing along (read, jumping up and down) to the entire song, in full pigtail regalia. Except for about 2 seconds in the middle wherein I stopped to breathe, and then started jumping again.
For nostalgia's sake, I still sing it at karaoke on occasion.

Another  memory was roller skating in the cellar (had a cement floor, so perfect) to a cassette of some top hits of the 1960's... I remember Leader of the Pack (actually hated that song), Runaway, Kansas City, and possibly other songs like Shoop Shoop Song, Chapel of Love, Pretty Woman, Baby Love, My Guy, etc... All I really remember of the tape was that it had a jukebox on the cover, with a black background.

Next, and this can count as part embarrassment, was my obsession with The Phantom of the Opera. I was madly in love with Michael Crawford (and refused to see the show again after he left the lead) and desperately wanted to be Christine Daae and walk through the mirror on the back of my bedroom door and be swept away by the hideously misshapen and misunderstood phantom. And for me, the sweeping music score was just so fantastic. In all seriousness, I wore out two different cassette tape sets of the soundtrack, I listened to it so often.
Me <---- Nerd.
Aside: I actually do not like 90% of musical theater. That whole move of suddenly facing the audience and singing instead of just speaking has always irked me, and possibly the fact that so many musicals are cheesy or campy has secured my dislike.
A story told through music is one thing. People randomly breaking into song is another.
I mean, "Phantom" takes place in an opera house. Of COURSE they're going to be singing! It made SENSE!

Moving on to the first CD I ever owned, circa 1991. Right as I was hitting my "tween years" as they are now called, I discovered Pearl Jam, and was instantly in love. With both the music and the lead singer of course. (Do you know how complicated it is to be in love with The Phantom AND Eddie Vedder at the same time? Seriously.) I still think this is an incredible album, and I'm surprised I didn't wear out the cd since it was the first I owned, and therefore was on repeat a lot. And it breaks my heart to see how Eddie Vedder aged. Boo-urns.

My very first Tori Amos album, and yes, it "changed my life" listening to her voice and her lyrics. I loved her avidly. And I still think she is a gorgeous and talented woman. Sadly I think she went a little too far into La La Land in the last decade. Right around "To Venus And Back" her lyrics started making zero sense to anyone but her. But, an undeniable talent. And beauty.

The CD that made my mother cringe in fear! Released in 1994, one year after my chemicals went kerfluey and my parents ceased to understand how to talk to me and I ceased to have a normal emotional life. (Definitely read chemicals here, not hormones. That came later.)
You could probably put this CD on now and I would know 99% of the lyrics still.

Which brings us to 1996, and Ani DiFranco. My brother actually got this CD for Christmas (he would be about a Junior at Wesleyan University at that time... and we all know Ani is REQUIRED listening, at some point or other, for all Liberal Arts College students.) and while he does not actually remember "giving me" the CD, it ended up in my possession. At which point, I was once again obsessed. (The way I remember it, he listened to it, thought it was so-so, and thought to pass it along to his 16-year-old sister full of teenage angst issues. Could there be a more perfect album in such a scenario? I think not.)
I then proceeded to buy every album I could, and still listen to her today.
Other than being an incredible musician, her outspokenness on politics and sexuality and basic human rights has always moved me... as well as when she giggles and just ends up being a girl.
Totally <3 heart <3 Ani DiFranco.

Since that does bring us into present day listening, I think I'll stop boring you right there. That's a pretty solid roundup of childhood music. Sure, I left out Madonna, but she's mainstream and ubiquitous, and while I have many, many, many excellent memories from the last 15 years involving the "Like a Prayer" song (Lin Manuel, if you're ever reading this, you're in at least two of them!) she was not as big of an influence on me as the others I mentioned.

Now, to pass this on to others who (hopefully) have not already received it a dozen times. Sassy only sent it on to 3 others, without explanations, so I shall do the same, hoping I am not leaving out any guidelines.
And I shall pass it along to people that I know actually read my blog from their frequent comments, thus not making this a moot post. (Corrie, get your blog going!)
Melissa at Think On It... you blogging outraged and drunk would be a hoot.
Candy at Warrior Candy since you are a rock star at heart, as well as in reality.
The chick at A Mainland Streel because OH MY GOD I just saw that you have a post about Beaker and I just shared a YouTube video of Beaker getting Rick Roll'd and I laughed out loud. So, obviously, you're cool and deserve an award.

Congratulations Winners! ;)
And enjoy your weekends.

Beautiful Blogger

Somebody out there likes me!!!

Well, more than one somebody apparently. So thank you all right off for checking back in and reading about what I'm up to in the kitchen or just generally up to.
Amanda, who seems to be an awesome crazy chick who loves cats and drinks tequila while blogging, sent me the Beautiful Blogger Award last week, and I have been trying to sit down and write the seven facts about myself in between cooking and regular thoughts passing through my brain.
She also wrote the following about me, which made me smile OH SO wide, which is why I need to share it with the rest of you:
"The Chick at Rock'n'Roll Gourmet. Not your typical cooking blog,  her pictures and descriptions  are so mouthwatering you can almost cyber taste the dishes she whips up. She chefs it up in true rocker style"
I aim to please, Amanda. Glad to be (somewhat) successful at something I enjoy. 

So! The seven facts about me that I came up with:

1- I have never had a manicure. I am 30 years old, and even before my wedding, I did not get a manicure. Basically, my fingernails are so flimsy, and I am so active with my hands, that there is just no point in paying someone to do my nails. Don't worry. I trim and file them regularly. I'm not walking around with torn talons or anything. I just don't put in the extra effort to make my nails works of art.
 Plus, I never like the color I pick to paint them after the first hour.

2- I have never broken a bone. I have sprained, strained, twisted, bruised, concussed, jammed, and mystery-injured many body parts over the years, but I have never broken a bone. Knock on wood it continues that way. (Tho they say breaks always heal better than all the things I just listed, so that explains a lot of my overall "brokenness" as Mike calls it.)

3- I have caught line-drives with both my neck and my bare hand. I do not recommend either if you can avoid it.

4- I still get car-sick. Cab drivers are frequently evil. Sometimes even the subway will do it when it sways between track lines. It sucks.

5 - The older I get, the less I like children. When I was a teenager and taught sailing to little kids, it was fine and I liked most of them. But over time it's almost as though I wore out my tolerance. Luckily, my husband (the teacher...) feels largely the same way.
That came out wrong.

6 - While I would not actually be diagnosed with dyslexia by a doctor, I invert letters and numbers I read, just like many people w/ dyslexia, but I have taken it a step further on occasion. I will invert the letters in words that I hand-write. Not just typing where your fingers are used to certain patterns on the keys. I actually wrote an entire U.S. History A.P. exam essay, by hand, and wrote "mowen" instead of "women" every time. The subject was Women in History. This was a big boo boo.

7 - Even tho I grew up a tomboy and played all kinds of sports, I have never been a runner. I could sprint just fine, but then I was done. To this day, I cannot run a mile all together. If I were being chased by a bear, or a person with a gun, or a bear holding a shark, I would have to bludgeon another person just so they would fall behind and I would not be the one eaten.

Fascinating, I know.
Now to pass along the award... I'm supposed to pass this along to 5 other blogs I read and enjoy. The problem is that at the moment, I mostly read blogs/reviews like Italian Wine Merchants and things of that ilk. I will pass it along to who I do read tho:
- Living Shallow, Living Well does not fail to crack me up when I read her thoughts and stories.
- Think On It and I have a lot of ideas in common, and she also loves bacon, so that makes her automatically awesome.
- Joe at Your Italian Grandma is one of the only regular cooking blogs I check, and frankly he seems a very interesting character, so I'd be interested in what 7 facts he chose to share.
- And finally, the amazing Michelle at Thursday Night Smackdown, which is the very first food blog I ever read, and possibly only the second blog I ever read.

If you are a regular reader here and have a blog to share, just leave a comment, and I will try to stop by and see what you're up to as well. Until then, thanks for stopping by and showing the love.

My favorite Chicken Chili recipe coming soon...