themeletor | you don't know how beautiful you are

I bugged

fadedsecret for this, so here we go, now I have to post it.

if you wish, comment to this post asking me to list 5 things I associate with you. then it's your turn to go and take those 5 things and expand upon them in your livejournal. funtimes indeed!

cooking shows

there are two things that switch off in my mind as options for my very first actual distinct memory. one of them is standing in the kitchen on a stool between my mother and grandmother kneading pierogi dough (or really, you know, just smacking it with my itty bitty hands). the other is sitting on the end of the fold-out couch in the living room watching The Frugal Gourmet with my mom. suffice to say, I've loved cooking shows since I was TINY. they've always charmed me, enthralled me, and been opportunities for me to soak up expert knowledge like the little sponge that I am. they inspire me to try new things; they inspire me to take a crack at old intimidating classics. tbh, the cooking show chefs on PBS have kind of been like a surrogate family to me. so I don't know if I'll ever be able to completely describe the way cooking shows (real cooking shows with their real (i.e. not Rachel Ray) chefs: Julia Child and Jacques Pepin, Lidia Bastianich, Martin Yan, so many others through the years -- that adorable Norwegian guy, the enormously rotund Italian chef with "happy fingers" and a fear of tart shells... Christina (of "Christina Cooks", enormously formative when I was first familiarizing myself with natural foods, raw foods, whole foods, and veganism/vegetarianism) ... anyway) have maintained a foundation for my passion, a constant home to return to, a peaceful joy, a thrumming enthusiasm. but seriously. cooking shows.

cooking (general)

oh god. what can I say? I ... it's simple. I cook. I love feeding people, and if there are two sayings that I have taken far too much to heart they are "you are what you eat" and "the quickest way to a [person]'s heart is through [his or her] stomach." cooking is like breathing to me. that's all. *shrug*

veganism (if I remember correctly, you practice, yes?)

actually I'm eating vegetarian right now -- it's very hard to maintain vegan food habits when you've lived in WISCONSIN all your life. no way in hell am I going to deny all those beautiful artisan cheeses space in my fridge (though I should probably be denying them space in my wallet). mostly, for me, it's really become about reducing cruelty and being conscious about where my food's coming from, combined with the fact that I just ... don't ... like meat. mostly, though, see this post. (no really, please, see that post.)

hippie (as you once called yourself :P )

to quote an Orlandofamily member: "Earth. You just might fucking miss it!"

yes, I have a tree, and I hug it every day.

shoes

... I don't even know. honestly. SHOES! I think I can reduce it to their spectacular capacity to make or break an outfit, to completely and yet quite subtly change the tone of whatever you're wearing. since I was a little girl I've always loved the confident click of high heels on a hard floor, and the first time I made that noise with my own feet? god, I've never gotten over it. to summarize, and in the realm of "don't worry, I am pretty sure that I'm invoking this song to mean something right now that it does not actually mean", U2's new single, all about sexy boots and being beautiful.

so there we go. I totally had something else quick I was planning to say at the end of this post ... but now I can't remember what it was. go me.

[ETA: I REMEMBER! it's this: RuPaul's Drag Race ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥!!!!
(for those of you outside of the US, I'm sorry; there had been a user with at least ep 1 posted on youtube, but now I can't find that. D: ) ]