My blog-friend, Spree (cooking-spree), invited me to participate in the “Unplugged” Questionnaire. Although I am not a food blogger I am a food fan and a fan of trying new recipes. Cooking has been an interest of mine for many years, and although I don’t enjoy the drudgery of every day meal preparations, I love cooking for special occasions. Having company is my excuse to experiment with new recipes. While I find it monotonous to prepare the same foods day after day it is fun to fill the table with friends who unknowingly may become guinea pigs for my new ideas.
What or who inspired you to start your blog?
I have always loved writing, and after watching my fumbling, submitting articles and getting rejected, my son suggested that I wrote my own blog. He is computer savvy, and set up my blog on wordpress. So I did, and so I am. It was great advice. I love my blog and all the friends I have met through writing it. And it is so much fun responding to comments people leave.
Who is your foodie inspiration?
I loved a radio program that Arthur Schwartz once hosted. He taught me many things about cooking. BUT the best thing I ever heard him say was,”What does being hungry have to do with eating?”
Your greasiest most batter splattered cook book is?
Although I have many cook books I find that I look to my own recipe files. They are filled with recipes friends have given me, recipes I cut out from newspapers and magazines and recipes printed out from blogs.
The best thing you have ever eaten in another country, where was it and what was it?
For a New Jerseyite, California is like another country, and almost as far away. I love their originality in preparing wonderful salads, fresh seafood and inventive combinations of dishes.
Another Food Blogger’s table you would like to eat at?
I love two food bloggers’ posts and recipes. They are: cooking-spree and thekitchensgarden.
What one kitchen gadget would you like Santa to bring you? (if money were no object)
I once bought a cheap slow cooker. It made succulent, juicy chicken and I loved it. But it cracked and became unusable. I got what I paid for: only a memory about how good a dinner I could prepare. Now I don’t have the device to repeat the performance. But if Santa would bring me a GOOD slow cooker I promise to make room in my cabinets to store it properly.
Who taught you how to cook?
As much as I’d love to give the credit to my mom, all she ever cooked were things that could be broiled. I have taken many cooking classes in ethnic cooking such as Chinese, Indian and Spanish cuisines. With the various techniques under my belt I moved on to Gourmet magazine, which I adored. Every time it arrived I stopped everything and nestled with the new issue. I felt inspired and anxious to try new recipes every time I read that wonderful magazine. I wrote a blog commemorating the memory of Gourmet. I was so sad when it stopped publishing. (BOO to Conde Nast!)
I’m coming to you for dinner, what is your signature dish?
I love experimenting with new recipes. If I prepare something amazing I put the recipe in my recipe file. I have no signature dish because I’m always trying something new. Sometimes I forget about a dish I made until someone asks me for the recipe. Then it’s like a new awakening, as I find it and prepare it again.
What is your guilty food pleasure?
I always joke about having a hot fudge banana split. In truth I haven’t eaten one in years. Where can you get good hot fudge any more? Not the corn syrup stuff, but real hot fudge? Maida Heater has a lovely recipe in her cook book, but when I read the ingredient list I immediately feel my blood pressure rising and my arteries clogging.
Reveal something about yourself that others would be surprised to learn?
I wanted to be a veterinarian. But when I got to college and enrolled in advanced chemistry and organic chemistry I realized that I did not have the ambition or talent to go through the course of study to become one.
My task to finish this off is to select 5 additional bloggers to answer these same questions.
1) I would love to invite Celi at mykitchensgarden. Celi lives on a farm in Oklahoma and has a lovely blog full of her commentaries about life on the farm, delightful pictures of the animals she raises, and wonderful recipes using fresh healthy ingredients.
2) Chica Andaluza, an interesting Londoner who married a Spaniard and moved to Spain with him. She has a great personality, beautiful animals and delicious recipes.
3) Lifeinarecipe comes to us from Canada. Cindy Knight writes beautifully, and tells stories about where the recipes come from and her experiences with them.
4) TheCompleteCookbook, by Mandy. Mandy is from South Africa, and her blog is an interesting mix of stories, different ingredients and unusual dishes.
5) Prominadeplantings is from a seaside town on the southern coast of England. She plants her own crops and uses them in her excellent recipes.
I thank Antoinette of cooking-spree for giving me the opportunity to take part in this questionnaire.
MorristownMemos 
Comments on: "“Unplugged” Questionnaire" (22)
[…] in shame) weeks ago to partake in the Food Bloggers Unplugged Questionnaire and promised Ronnie at Morris Town Memos who invited me that I would get to doing the post “soon” – well soon seems to […]
I approve of your choosing California as the ideal culinary getaway 😉
It’s wonderful, creative, healthy cooking at its best.
I love this post 🙂
Thank you, Jake. I love your blog too.
Ronnie
Hi,
I really like the sound of hot fudge banana splits, I don’t recall ever having tried one, but it does sound like something I would definitely like. 🙂
Thank You very much for visiting and commenting on my blog.
I’ll tell you how to make it so you aren’t deprived any longer. Cut a banana lenghthwise and place it in a long dish/bowl. Then take the best, highest calorie full fat ice cream and put a few scoops on
top of the banana. Finally, warm up some really good quality hot fudge and pour some on top of the ice cream. Enjoy your banana split hot fudge sundae. Doesn’t it sound wonderful?
Ronnie
I guarantee that you would like it if the hot fudge is a good quality.
Ronnie
Oh you little rule breaker you, Ronnie! I’m so glad you did! Who doesn’t like to talk about food a bit – one certainly doesn’t need to be a food-blogger right? – and your answers were fun to read! Thanks so much for accepting the invitation!
OOps that went out a bit early…I wanted to thank you too for the sweet things you said – and anytime you’re out Oregon way, I’d LOVE to have you share our table! 🙂
Will we have hot fudge banana splits?
Ronnie
Spree, I’m discovering that if you think about a subject you can find answers to the questions in terms of your own experiences.
Thank you for asking me to participate, and for encouraging me to do it. it was great fun!
Ronnie
Gosh, what I’d do for a hot fudge banana split…YUM!!
It’s my all time favorite food!
Ronnie
Darling you are such a hoot, I did this questionaire ages ago or something very similiar .. so at the risk of boring you all over again i shall have to pass… And now that you mention it are there blog groups for glue makers and woodchoppers and barn window pane painters .. Hmm.. this is an interesting question.. time for some research! I want to join the woodchoppers, I do a fair amount of that myself! c
You could never bore anyone even if you tried. But I understand if you don’t want to go through all that again. I’ll keep trying: I will find something you haven’t already been awarded!
Ronnie
Hi Ronnie – great post and thanks for the nomination and kind words! I have toyed with the idea of buying a slow cooker and am now feeling that maybe I really need one now 🙂 I too have a recipe file stuffed with scraps of paper and things torn out of magazines or jotted down by friends or cooks in restaurants when I ask for recipes…they´re the best!
Great, Tanya. I look forward to reading your answers on the questionnaire. I thought it was a fun project.
Ronnie
I found the questionnaire so interesting. My husband would enjoy being my guinea pig, but it is not something I do easily. It is on my list of self-improvement, and I hope to get to it right after I pick a color for the bathroom!!!! Thanks for the inspiration, next comes motivation….
PLEASE let’s keep the bathroom and kitchen separate.
Ronnie
Enjoyable blog, Ronnie! Interesting to learn about your foodie side, and to learn of some good food blogs.
Thanks, Lisa. Now I wonder if there are all sorts of other specialty blogs: blogs for model airplane builders, dressage trainers, or scuba divers?
And do they have their own questionnaires?
Ronnie