The Queen's Meme - What Is The Meaning of Thyme and Other Deep Questions

The Cooking Meme (What Is The Meaning of Thyme and Other Deep Questions)










1. If you could put thyme in a bottle, what is the first thing that you'd like to do?











I'd hand it over to my mom, with whom my husband and I live. She'd use it to make something incredibly divine, some kind of mushroom-y chicken-y thing. Mmm...I can taste it now...

2. Do eggs really crack or do they merely have a nervous breakdown?


















Eggs crack for the most part. They can withstand a lot, but in the right hands they fold like a souffle.

Photo by Ewing Galloway

3. Why are you whipping the butter? What did it ever do to you?













There's a lot about butter that most people don't understand. It doesn't want to be hard. It longs to reveal its softer side.


















But it needs the permission of a thorough whipping before it will succumb.

4. Do your spoons spoon in the drawer? Have you ever noticed? And more importantly, if wooden spoons spoon do they get splinters?














My spoons don't really make it as far as the drawer. To be honest, I've got most of my flatware still wrapped in newspaper from our move here 10 years ago. My husband and I dug out a knife, fork and spoon each when we first got settled in Cole Harbour. These utensils just keep moving from the sink to the dish rack to being used while we eat. Sink, dish rack, eat. It's minimalism at its best.

As for the wooden spoons - I used to have some when I lived in Toronto and used to cook. I've never unwrapped them, either. I pop in frozen dinners or eat my mom's exquisite creations. It's all part of my paring down on non-writing-activity in order to claim more writing time in a 24-hour-period.

5. You hear: "Dumpling, my Dumpling, come hither." The candles are lit, the fondue is dipping, the Godiva is pouring, the scallions are steaming and the music is playing.....but wait, the windows are open. Why did you close them?


















I don't want the fog to roll in and dampen our smoldering evening...

6. Do you need a recipe to cook or are you a bohemian chef? Show us your reckless and wild side in the kitchen. Don't have one? Here's a recipe I made just for you: You will need a spatula, a whisk, a gallon of Chardonnay, a banana and a rump roast. What is the name of your dish?

First of all - the roast goes up in my mom's freezer. I don't handle raw meat. Blech.

Here's what I cook up with the rest:


















Two glasses for the wine
Fill, sip, enjoy

One banana
Peel it
You and significant other each start from one end and eat toward a kiss in the middle

Chase partner with whisk
Change places
Run from partner with whisk
Laugh and drink more wine

Trade whisk for spatula
Repeat chasing, running and laughing
If caught, suffer the consequences
Trade places and repeat

Was there supposed to be a dinner in there somewhere?

Order in.

7. After dinner, the dishes are so dirty that the dishwasher refuses to wash them. What did they say to get in hot water?


















They said "Mercy! Mercy!" And the dishwasher relented. Because the dishwasher is me...

8. Is your pot black?













It's stainless steel. At least, that's what I remember...

9. What is the sexiest spice or condiment in your cabinet? What makes it so?



















Cajun spice mix. It connects me to any Cajun cousins I might have, and makes me wonder who they could be. And it gives a kick of joie de vivre to a wide range of recipes.

10. How much crock is really in your crock pot?



















My crock pot is all crock, all the time. A pot implies cooking, and I'm quite confident the only thing you'll find on the crock pot is a layer of dust from non-use.

Visit Mimi at The Queen's Meme if you'd like to play.

Thursday Thirteen - 100! - 13 of My Favorite T13s From My Archives

1 - 13 Things I Long To Do

This was a response to Claudia, who wondered what I long to do after I posted a list of things I'll never do.


















2 - Julia Needs

This list comes from a Google search game, where you type in your name along with the word needs and see what comes up in the search engine. I nearly killed myself laughing at how closely this list mirrors the real me.














3 - 13 Reasons to Read Book Review Series

These have become a signature aspect of my blog. I have all of my book reviews posted in their own archives, with a link on my sidebar. To see them, click HERE.


















4 - 13 Works of Art Series

Another signature of A Piece of My Mind are the art work posts, showcasing the talents of fine artists. I also have these collected in their own archive, with a link in my sidebar. To see them, click HERE.


















5 - 13 of My Favorite Ballets

It's no secret to regular readers that I am a certified ballet freak. I often review ballets - read a sample HERE.

















6 - 13 Reasons I Hate to Cook

This one of my earliest T13s - before I learned how to load pictures onto my blog.













7 - 13 Fictional Male Characters I Love

I spend copious amounts of time thinking about fictional male characters - my own and the ones I've discovered in film, television, theatre and books. Here are some of my all-time faves.













8 - 13 of My Favourite Canadian Hotties in Honour of Canada Day

When I was checking these over for this retrospective list, to my amazement, 'Albert' the Philly cream cheese manservant had left a comment about being chosen as my #9 Canadian Hottie. Check it out!












9 - 13 of My Favorite Fictional Couples

Second to thinking about fictional male characters, I spend an awful lot of time thinking about fictional couples. I highly recommend it!














10 - 13 Funniest Film Scenes

I have a strange reaction to laughing really hard - it triggers an asthma attack. Be assured that every scene listed here had me in physical agony, while tears of both laughter and the inability to breathe squeezed out of my eyes.














11 - Introducing 13 of My Ancestors

This was my first mega-post. But definitely not the last.
















12 - 13 Things About Canada's Role in the Two World Wars

This is one of my favorites. I concentrated on Remembrance Day at A Piece of My Mind last year, leading up to Nov. 11th.












13 - 13 Reasons I Counted the Days Until George W. Bush Was Outta Here

My delirium of joy after America's historic election last fall was only partially about aquiring Obama.

Thursday Thirteen - 2 - 13 Reasons I Hate To Cook

My mom came up with this one, after patiently listening to me tell her about my blogging escapades when she is A) not patient and B) not interested in anything to do with computers. Also, she is right on the money with today's Thursday Thirteen:

1 - I hate to cook because there is no room in my precious grey matter for a recipe file. It's too busy thinking about my plot threads and characters. This doesn't stop people from launching into a recipe when I compliment them on how delicious their hors dourve or entree or dessert tastes. It doesn't get saved onto my mental hard drive, unfortunately.

2 - I shudder if I have to look at raw meat. Even pictures of meat in store fliers.

3 - Handling raw meat gives me post traumatic stress disorder.

4 - The smell of meat cooking gives my stomach the heebie jeebies.

5 - The soul-crushing tedium of the peeling.

6 - The mind-shrivelling boredom of the chopping.

7 - My sore back. Counter heights are always too high for me. I'd need custom-made countertops for peeling and chopping to be comfortable for my back. But don't you have to love cooking to want custom-made countertops?

8 - The hurry-scurry of timing out multiple items cooking in multiple pans. Always puts me in a cranky mood.

9 - The sight of congealed grease set aside after cooking can make me wish I was a Stephen Hawking-like physicist, having discovered practical applications for wormhole time travel, so I could return to a moment just before I had seen the congealed grease.

10 - I despise without reservation having to clean any pan with meat grease in it.

11 - I always think everyone else's versions of favorite dishes taste better than how I make it. Real cooks always think that nothing tastes as good as their version.

12 - If I cook, then I can't go out for dinner, one of my all-time favorite things to do.

13 - Cooking may have a genetic factor. Most people in my family are absolutely fantastic cooks who get all dreamy just thinking about cooking. I'm certain everything about my relationship with cooking will be explained at some later date when the cooking genome is identified, and my bloodwork will show I was born without it.