TGIF!

Time for another Behind the Blog post, and I’m happy to welcome Sarah! I’ve been loving her blog lately and she just seems like such a fun person.

Enjoy!

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1. What’s your name and blog address?

Sarah @ The Smart Kitchen (http://thesmartkitchenblog.com)

2. How long have you been blogging?

I think we are coming up on my 6 month anniversary! (Clearly not the "gold" or "diamond" one…maybe we’ll call it a "cardstock" anniversary, since I think paper is taken.)

 

3. What do you love / hate about blogging?

I love the creative outlet it gave me that I didn’t even knew I needed. I love the relationships I have formed because of blogging, and those I have renewed and strengthened "behind the blog." It’s fun to have a platform to showcase and celebrate food (and people! and places!) that you love. :)

I don’t think I hate anything about it, actually. Some days it is more difficult to feel "witty" and interesting, but I believe that if there ever comes a day when I find myself hating it, I will stop. I haven’t even really wanted to take a "blog break" yet!

 

4. What’s your favorite color?

Green! (although I am branching out into other colors slowly….)

5. Favorite movie?

Hook, Shag, She’s The Man [I’m not super intellectual in my movie choices….]

6. Favorite book?

I always say The Bridge of Beyond by Simone Schwartz-Bart, because that sounds much more intellectual, but in reality it would probably be a toss-up between Harry Potter [especially The Goblet of Fire] and any of the chick-lit novels I unabashedly adore. [I also love food writing. Especially Ruth Reichl.]

 

7. Favorite food?

Isn’t that like asking a mom to pick her favorite child? [Although we all know there are favorites. My sister is my dad’s favorite child, for example. Your teachers’ were also lying when they said they didn’t have favorite students. We do.]

Based on my recent eating habits, I’d probably have to go with The Big Three: Hummus, Yogurt, and Oatmeal, but I also love pimiento cheese and my dad’s grilled pizza. If I see the words "hearts of palm" or "lychee" I must eat it. I am a cereal fiend. And frozen yogurt. Oh how I love frozen yogurt.

[I also adore preety much every vegetable and fruit in existence…Perhaps you could consult my Top 25 Most Eaten?]

 

8. Chocolate or vanilla?

Vanilla (with chocolatey mix-ins, like Oreos, brownies, or chocolate chips)

 

9. Favorite TV show NOW and when you were growing up?

Now? Glee, How I Met Your Mother, Mad Men, Top Chef…when growing up? I lived for TGIF (Full House, Family Matters, Step by Step, Boy Meets World), and SNICK (Are You Afraid of the Dark?)…as well as Saved By The Bell on Saturday mornings.

10. Do you like playing sports? Watching sports?

I am often quoted as saying "I don’t play team sports." I wanted to be a field hockey player in middle and high school, but never made the team. Although I had a brief obsession with World Cup soccer this summer (Viva Espana!), and I do enjoy the occasional tennis match…I’m really into sports for the tailgating food potential.

 

11. Are you a coffee or tea person? Or neither?

Coffee! Oh my goll, do I love me some coffee.

 

12. Do you have tattoos or piercings?

Just the normal ear piercing undergone at the local mall upon turning 13.

 

13. Do you have any special talents?

Can’t say that I do. I’m not double-jointed and I do not perform any Gob Bluth*-like illusions.

*Bonus points to you if you got that allusion.

 

14. If you could go anywhere in the world TOMORROW, where would you go?

Costa Rica or Greece….the first is my favorite place I’ve ever been, and the second is the place I most want to go

 

15. Last thing you ate?

A delicious CFY (cereal, fruit, and yogurt) mess with strawberries and green and black grapes on top.

16. When you were young, what did you want to be when you grew up?

First, a teacher. Then, a film director. Then, a teacher again. Now, a Broadway actress.*

*Just kidding. Sort of.

 

17. What was your favorite subject in school?

As a student, English (or, strangely, Physics).

As a teacher, Math and Science.

 

18. What games did you play when you were younger?

I played a lot of my brother’s computer games actually…I loved The Sims and Lemmings, as well as this one which I think was called Quest for Glory. Getting into board games was a later development in my life, where now my family loves to play Apples to Apples and some of my favorite nights with friends have involved either Cranium or Catchphrase.

 

19. Favorite restaurant?

Impossible to say…my new favorite is Foodheads here in Austin, which is a menu-on-the-blackboard, chairs-and-tables-are-salvaged-and-mismatched type sandwich shop.

 

20. Favorite store?

Trader Joe’s!!!! [Oh how I miss him here in Texas.]

21. Favorite animal?

I’m not actually sure….puppies? Who doesn’t love a puppy?

 

22. Favorite thing to cook/make?

Anything that will be a gift or served to someone else…especially if it is their birthday cake!

 

23. Most embarrassing guilty pleasure?

Anything featuring Zac Efron. Oh, and I love Hanson. [But I’m actually not embarrassed by it. Seriously, their newer music is GOOD.]

24. Do you have any nicknames?

I get a lot of inadvertent ones from my students: Ms. Pepper, Ms. Pemberson, Ms. Pemberton, Ms. Peppermint.

My friends used to (and some still do) call me Pembs.

 

25. List one thing the “blog world” doesn’t know about you but should!

I don’t like nut butter in my oatmeal. (Gasp! Shock! Outrage!)

 

Thanks, Brandi, for letting me share a little of me with your portion of the blogger world! 

 

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Thanks Sarah!

If you’re interested in being featured on Behind the Blog, send an email to branappetit [at] gmail with your answers to these questions!