Veinticinco Cosas = Twenty-Five Things

by Mara @ What's For Dinner? on April 30, 2009

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Adam and I went to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner tonight, so rather than boring you with another picture of a huge salad, bowl of soup, 2” piece of focaccia, or sundae, I’m going to share a bit into who I am. Melissa from Tales of a (Recovering) Disordered Eater tagged me in this “25 Things” survey (I think the blog term is meme?) and even though I did one on Facebook a while back, I’m doing another one. This one though, will share a bit about my history with food, weight loss, cooking, and a few random things too…

1.) I never in a million years thought I would have a food blog. I started this one on a whim, and now cannot imagine NOT doing it! I have met some of the most wonderful people, and am honored to be part of such a caring community.

2.) At one point in my life, I weighed almost 260 lbs and wore a size 24. I’m only 5’4”.

3.) In those days (the 260-lb days that is) my food was out of control. Breakfast would be 2 McGriddles, a whole milk white chocolate mocha, lunch was usually leftover pizza, after-work snacks were super-sized value meals from whatever fast food place I passed, and dinner was often stuffed pizza.

4.) Saturdays when I woke up around noon, I’d call the local Italian joint. I’d order an Italian beef with cheese and an order of fried jalapeno poppers… then eat lunch when Adam got up later.

5.) I have absolutely no desire to be a runner. None. At all. I had a brief phase of wanting to run… tried it, hurt my knee and I haven’t been in so much constant pain ever in my life than that miserable 3 weeks.

6.) I’m told that when I was in kindergarten, I came home and told my mom that the other kids have this “really cool bread” that’s “all white on the inside and only beige around the verrrry outside.” I’d never seen white bread before.

7.) Growing up, my lunches at school often consisted of a whole wheat pita with cashew butter and apricot preserves, graham crackers, and flavored seltzer instead of soda. Sounds great now, but kids made fun of me!

8.) I now can’t stomach too much fat. I had a burger at a restaurant recently, and let’s just say the aftermath wasn’t pretty.

9.) I’m one of the lucky people that absolutely loves my job. I’m doing what I always wanted to do, and I like to think I’m darn good at it.

10.) I lost 5 lbs. a week my first month on Weight Watchers because I (gasp!) stopped eating crap and started eating less crappy food.

11.) It wasn’t until I started cooking that I really started to appreciate quality ingredients.

12.) In college, I was so bad about doing the dishes that a housemate (I lived in a boarding-house type place) bought a Rubbermaid tub and would put my dishes in it. I’d wash the dishes in the tub about once every 2 weeks. Gross, I know.

13.) In that same house, our idea of a fun night was going to the craft store, buying supplies for a random craft, drinking cheap wine, and making said craft. My mom still has a bubble vase encrusted with plastic beads.

14.) I didn’t really drink in college. I got great at holding a drink, and would sip here and there, and I can count on one hand (ok 3 fingers) the number of times I’ve been REALLY drunk.

15.) I often go through the housewares section at department stores just to see the pretty colors of Le Crueset cookware. I’d love to have a whole set someday.

16.) Cooking scallops scares me. They’re so expensive, and so easy to mess up… so I leave it to the pros.

17.) I’ve never eaten a whole lobster. (Miss Tiffie, I know, it’s just wrong!)

18.) I’m often disgusted by the things that many people think are “SO GOOD!” Seriously, who needs a bread bowl full of fettucine alfredo?

19.) Sometimes, I just want to be able to eat whatever I feel like eating and not analyze every bite that goes into my mouth. Points just come naturally now…and I hate it.

20.) I can turn my feet out so far that it looks like my body’s on backwards. It used to freak out my P.E. teachers.

21.) I miss my grandma every day. She passed away over 2 years ago, and I attribute much of my love for food to her and my mom. So many smells and tastes (including banana chocolate anything and peanut butter) remind me of my grandma’s sunny yellow kitchen. She’d love reading my blog… if she’d had a computer!

22.) Speaking of my mom, I’m grateful every day that I cook something new for the skills she taught me about cooking by feel and smell, and appreciating good ingredients. I wish I’d picked up her “clean up as you go” habit though…

23.) I have my nose pierced, and am leaving the stud in for our wedding.

24.) Our Save the Date cards went out today!

25.) I’m beyond thankful for the love of my life, Adam, and his tolerance of my food obsessions, my weigh in catastrophes, and just being willing to taste my cooking.

So now, you know a bit more about me… in lieu of tagging anyone else, I’m going to tag ALL of you! Leave one random fact about yourself in the comments! Maybe I’ll compile them in another post…

I’m still looking for Guests for Dinner! Send me your submissions to mara@imadedinner.net

The guidelines:

a short post outlining in some way what you ate for dinner. It can be a recipe, a description, a how-to, or a combination of all of those.
a photo of the meal! Everyone loves pictures!
What did you THINK of your meal? Would you eat it again? Does the recipe have a story?

Have a wonderful night!