5 Things About Me

I’ve been tagged by my good friend Tea over at Tea and Cookies with my second meme. It made me wonder where it started, so I dug around trying to trace it back. Okay, I only went back as far as February 1st, and I am sure this goes back much further than that, but the thread of this meme, 5 Things About Me, came from the
Perfect Pantry to Cumin and Coriander to Tigerfish at Teczcape to Budding Cook to Rasa Malaysia to Pim of Chez Pim to Amy of Cooking with Amy to Tea of Tea and Cookies to me!

And by stating the obvious, here are 5 things you didn’t know about me.

1) I played softball for 27 years. Coming from a completely non-athletic family, I took up softball at age 13, at the urging of my mother when we moved to a new town. I played in the first Bobby Sox league in our area, for my high school, in summer leagues in high school and college, in the cannery leagues in San Jose, and in corporate leagues until I was 40. My primary positions were pitcher and first base—the reason being: I hate to run and these are 2 of the 3 positions that require little chasing of the ball.

2) I have two tattoos. My first tattoo, a large Celtic Tree of Life on my lower back, was done on the same day as my son’s first tattoo – a real mother/son bonding experience. This was a long time coming for me. I had wanted a tattoo since I was in my late teens. It only took me twenty-plus years to decide what to get and where to put it. I chose this image because it represented family to me; the roots are my ancestors, the branches my children, coming together to form a circle around the image. The second tattoo was done in honor of my nana on the day she passed away. She was always my guardian angel, and so I have a small angel on my shoulder, watching over me every day.

3) I have a large teacup and tea pot collection. Not that I am an avid collector, but somehow these things gravitate to me. I received two tea pots from my wedding, my mother gave me one from her first marriage, I inherited several from my granny, my husband gave me one, one is a gift from the Taiwanese government, and several others have been gifts over the years. My nana left me several antique tea cups, and when my granny died, I was able to save quite a few from her, as well. The teapots are displayed on a large shelf in my kitchen and are used regularly.

4) My favorite car was my Volkswagen Vanagon. The only new car I ever owned, it was purchased when my children were 1 and 3 and was the best investment a young family could have made. The kids sat far enough in the back that they were not screaming in your ear. There was a table you could pull up for them to play on. It had a removable refrigerator, cupboards, seat storage. It was a mobile playpen – with toys, towels, snacks, and diapers. It took us to the in-laws in Arizona, camping two or three times a year, trips to LA and San Diego. It hauled Little League players, soccer players, Girl Scouts. I was force to give it up because of an illness that resulted in arthritis that affects my hands and ankles and could no longer drive a stick shift.

5) I actually like deep-fried twinkies. I came up on these by accident walking down Fremont Street in Las Vegas and happening on a small innoculous looking venue with girls in sweats underneath tacky Carmen Miranda outfits passing out Mardi Gras beads. In the window was a sign. The sign I had to read twice to understand. Because in my part of the world, we don’t serve DEEP FRIED TWINKIES. I can’t even imagine who concocted such a thing. After dragging my husband into the The Mermaids Casino, we made our way to the back food court. Well, not really a food court. More of a Little League refreshment stand with sodas, corn dogs, hot dogs, and, of course, deep fried Twinkies. I ordered one, for the reasonable price of 99 cents, and proceeded to watch the delicacy being prepared. Out of the freezer comes a Twinkie, stuck on a stick. It is dipped in batter, and thrown into the fryer. A few minutes later, it is done, drenched in powdered sugar, and ready to eat. When I bit into it, I stopped laughing at what I thought would be culinary hell. It was actually good. It wasn’t too sweet and the deep frying had changed the texture of both the cake and the filling. And I ate the whole thing. It’s amazing to me that the humble Hostess Twinkie, which has a shelf life that NASA would love, could taste that good. It has served as a reminder to try more new things, because you just never know what you might like.

In the spirit of the meme, I am trying to tag several of my recipe testers from The World Is a Kitchen, but this new version of blogger is making my life hell, so I cannot do links right now. Apologies. Here is the list, without links:

Ivonne at Cream Puffs in Venice
Jenna of Jennatarianism
Helene at Tartelette
Lee at Welcome to My Pantry
Fran at Flavors