Thank you, Babble

Well, knock me over with a feather.

Babble just named your very own Prudence Pennywise for a Top 50 Mom Food Blog.

I'm speechless. Observe the quiet created by my speechlessness.

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(It's only a temporary condition. )

I'll be back to babbling in no time.

Here's the link so you can check out the other winners.

Be back after I unpack my suitcases, grade my term papers, teach my college students about Darwin, run the charges to violin lessons, and then of course, I'll have to actually make that Swedish Visiting Cake that I'll be back to write about.

Random Thoughts and Cooking Awards

I was tagged for this six random thoughts meme from Kathryn at Smoky Mountain Cafe and Pamela at Cookies with Boys.

Here I share six random things about myself (don't I do that everyday?), and pass on the meme to six others.

1. I had over sixty extra units when I got my Bachelor's degree. The problem is that I love so many things: nutrition, Spanish literature, Romance philology, advertising, educational psychology, sociology, English, botany, organizational theory, humanities, world religions, legal research... Those sixty extra units come in handy when you're playing Jeopardy and also for homeschooling.

2. I'm a puzzle lover: crossword, sudoku, cryptograms, Rubik's cube, even jigsaw.

3. I ran a marathon a couple of years ago (ow-ooh-my aching feet) and try to run at least a half marathon yearly. I wake up almost every morning wanting to skip my run, but then I feel on top of the world when I'm done.

4. When someone describes a movie as boring, it's almost a sure bet that I'm going to love it. Stuffy old English drawing room cinema is right up my alley.

5. I have severe wanderlust. If I hadn't had children, I might have become a gypsy. Now I want to be a mother gypsy. I'm always scheming my next trip.

6. I wish I could be more like my husband. He's quiet and noble and admirable and true and unflinching, and never ever puts his foot in his mouth or yells at his children. The amazing thing is that he likes me the way I am, noisy, moody, fickle and hopelessly imperfect.

Now, as for the Blog Awards: I had a lucky week! I'm the proud recipient of three sparkling new awards (see sidebar). There are so many excellent and lovely food blogs out there that I will have no problem sharing the love. Except, I'll do it slowly, over the next few weeks. And in a cruel twist of fate, I'm assigning these newly awarded blogs the random meme assignment from above and the music meme assignment below. Every rose has a thorn, they say. I'll start with the Brilliante Bog Award from Pamela.

1. Shannon at Writing As I Eat: Shannon is a cooking contest buddy and we've been at Pillsbury and National Chicken together. I haven't seen her in a while, which means I should get busy and enter some contests. She's witty and clever and very down to earth, even though she's a superstar in the kitchen.

2. The Hungry Housewife: The name alone one puts me in a good mood. Housework makes me hungry and being a housewife might sound frumpy, but not so with her. She's gorgeous and silly and you could bet you'd never leave her house hungry.

3. Aggie's Kitchen: One of my go to comfy blogs of choice. Aggie makes real people food that is eminently eatable and always beautiful.

4. Cookie Madness: You've probably already been there, but it bears repeating. Anna (another cooking contest buddy that hit the BIG time at Pillsbury) makes a yummy treat just about daily, plus shares tidbits of wisdom and humour. If I had a baking question, I'd probably ask Anna first.

5. Cat's Pajamas: You'll love reading about her lip licking recipes, plus life with her hardworking military husband sounds pretty idyllic, too.

6. Grandma's Kitchen: Kayte could be at the pool all day, watching her athlete sons beat the speedos off all the other kids. When she's done cheering, she comes in and whips up comfy hearty food that could make champs out of all of us.

7. Sophie at Flour Arrangements: Sophie is every bit as sweet as her original recipes. Her spoon full-of-sugar ways make it a literal and figurative treat to visit her blog.

Also, Sophie tagged me for a Music meme, which I'm also passing on to the newly minted award winners above. I'm not savvy (not to mention cool) enough to put on an ipod or youtube link on here, but I bet you've already heard all my summer favorites anyway.

1. Bob Marley-Stir It Up

2. The Beatles-Here Comes the Sun

3. Dean Martin- Good Morning Life

4. Jimmy Durante-As Time Goes By (in honor of my summer anniversary)

5. Van Morrison-Brown Eyed Girl

6. Go Gos- Vacation

Coming Tomorrow:

My 100th Post-Prudy's Greatest Hits

Food and Furthermore IX: Blog Award and Meme Assignments

HolyToledo-we had almost 4000 visitors last week to Prudence Pennywise! Keep coming and don't forget to tell your rabbi, pastor, bishop, and non-denominational religious advisor. Share the love.
Quiet down class. I'm assigning some meme work. That's right-assigning. Tagging sounds way too easy to get out of, like a school yard game that you can dodge with a quick sashay to the right. I love memes because I'm really nosy. I eavesdrop at ball games, peek in people's carts at the market, and read the notes that people write in the margins of books. I love (most) people and find them infinitely fascinating, with the exception of my undergrad Spanish poetry professor, quite possibly the most boring individual on planet earth. I really believe he could force a clock to move backwards just by the droning of his voice. But other than him, I'm fascinated and enthralled by my fellow members of the human race. So I'm assigning my memes to four of my favorite people, who also happen to be my sisters. (I'd assign memes to all my sisters, but they don't all have blogs.) Maybe I already know their answers, but I doubt it, since they are exciting and unpredictable foxy ladies. I just said "foxy"for the first time since 1978.Plus, they are ever so much more smart and clever, much more fun, and much much prettier than me and they wear much smaller jeans, just to rub it all in. If I weren't so busy trying to be like them, I'd probably hate them.

So Leslie at Little Rieta

Heidi at The Renouf Family

Catherine at Living the Good Life (closed blog so maybe she could post on Heidi's?)

Mary Kate at Telles A Story

and one extra...my seven year old sunshine daughter at Little Girl on the Go

***To complete your meme assignment, copy the questions HERE, erase my answers and plug in your responses. No cheating and this test is timed.

Furthermore, I'm passing on the Yum Yum Blog award to the following five dee-lish foodie blogs. If all goes well, they'll post the award and pass it on to five more. If all goes poorly, I'll need you to contact my attorney.

Kahakai Kitchen makes you wish you could move to Hawaii, then move in with Deb and beg her to make you all her good food. Although she's so nice, you probably wouldn't even have to beg.

Meet Me in the Kitchen has all kinds of yummy food that's comfy enough to feed your family and elegant enough to impress the neighbors.

A Year at Oak Cottage serves up daily inspiration, gorgeous photos, and life's lessons along with yummy recipes.

My Sister's Cucina showcases just the kind of food you wish you could eat with your sister, late at night in the kitchen.

Smoky Mountain Cafe shares generously a plethora of exciting recipes-check out all of her many marinades.

Coming Tomorrow:

Lightened up Whole Wheat Zucchini Pineapple Bread

Food and Furthermore III

Coming Tomorrow....Memorial Day Menu and Shopping List
Years ago, a little baby girl was born. Pink, pretty, and sugary sweet. But as of last week, she is seven. Pink, pretty, and sugary sweet-with a little bit of independent spice. We're just crazy about her. Even though she made that big mess on the counter.
Because we bake almost everything from scratch, for an extra special birthday treat, she USED to ask for a boxed cake mix. It practically killed me. She wanted a colorful funfetti cake, just like all the other kids (and grown-up, kid-at-heart Uncle Jack). But now she is seven and she knows better. For the first time this year she asked pretty please for homemade chocolate cupcakes with homemade chocolate frosting. It was a proud moment. I used the Devil's Food Cake recipe from The New Joy of Cooking. Make them only if you have more than an hour and you don't mind washing numerous bowls and dishes AND you love seriously, seriously good cupcakes.

Notice the tennis themed cupcakes for the party. We used the colored vanilla melts and piped the shapes onto waxed paper. These ones were for the grown ups.

This is what my little girl wanted for her birthday.

A Hawaiian, Don Ho, pearly shells, pineapple princess, purple ukulele. Now I can't keep my hands off of the darn thing. It's so fun and so easy to play and I can pretend I'm at a luau. Why am I paying money for violin and piano lessons? Forget it kids! Take up the ukulele and let's all be beach bums together.

Furthermore and speaking of expensive lessons, both of my children had a violin performance at an old folk's home.

During the performance, one of the spunky elderly gentleman shouted out, "Is that little boy for sale?" Nope. He's mine and you should have heard him play "Orange Blossom Special." On second thought, I think I really am getting my money's worth.
Furthermore...

It's time to pass the baton for the Arte y Pico Award

Leah at A Corner of My Kitchen. I don't just envy her kitchen. I also want dinner at her house every night. I could even bring my kids! The food is fabulous and family friendly.

Veronica at Supermarket Serenade. Take a look at her blog before you buy something new at the market. She'll let you know what's best to buy and what to do with it when you get home.

Lisa at Jersey Girl Cooks. Lisa shares thoughts, insights, tips, and recipes in her creative cooking adventures.

Jenny at Picky Palate creates yummy and easy original recipes guaranteed to please even the pickiest eaters
Camilla at Enlightened Cooking. Her brilliant ideas for healthy cooking are bright, fresh, and original. You'll be making mousse, ganache, cheesecake, and cookies-and you're still going to fit in your jeans.

Best of the Week; Food and Furthermore

Cinco De Mayo was our first grilling day of the year. More to come, my friends, much much more to come.....Yes, the food was muy muy buena this Cinco de Mayo, but my two little muchachos in their giant sombreros were awful cute, too. You just can't be in a bad mood when you are wearing a giant sombrero. Maybe I'll put one on next time I'm grouchy.

The two men in my life went on a Father-Son campout this weekend and my little cowboy got to catch a fish with his Daddy.

Someone at the campout made some homemade rootbeer that froze overnight. In the morning, my little cowboy snuck out of his tent and.....

...dug right in. Can you see his lightsabers in the background? He never travels without them. You never know when you might run into Vader or Palpatine, and you can't run the risk of being unprepared. Not when so many people are depending on you.
While the men were braving the wilds and snacking on frozen root beer and lake trout, my little girl and I went to an Osmond Brothers concert. Yep, those Osmonds. (We got free tickets from our lovely, generous neighbors.) Jimmy even snuck out of the audience and shook hands with my girl. You know, they were actually toe-tappingly wonderful and talented and just plain entertaining. And some great news for me: a generous compliment, in the form of a blog award, has been bestowed by fellow blogger Camilla Saulsbury of Enlightened Cooking.
Camilla has a dizzying array of talents, including being a stellar competitive cook and cookbook author, sociology professor, mother, and fitness instructor. Perhaps most impressive of all her culinary feats, she has managed to create a truly healthy chocolate ganache. Check out her blog for proof. The idea of this particular blog award is to pass it on, so I'm hoping to do that very soon...just as soon as I can figure out how to do it....

To Come this Week: Cinco De Mayo leftover remakes and Mother's Day Recipes