Over the past month I’ve made a few fun additions to my kitchen and in the spirit of Pee-Wee Herman please meet “Shelfy!  Unfortunately this shelf doesn’t chat with me and give sage advice but it does help immensely with the serious kitchen cabinet overload I’d been experiencing. Initially I thought I wanted a more traditional baker’s rack, but after searching around I couldn’t find one that didn’t seen horribly old fashioned.  Then CK and I went to Ikea, or as my friend Julia refers to it “Disneyland for Grown-ups.”  At Ikea I wrote down and crossed out literally six different shelving units until we got to the very end of the store and I saw this system: The Omar.  For once in my life I found exactly what I wanted and it was *gasp* the cheapest one.  So I ended up happy, the cupboards are a little less cluttered, and CK didn’t have to take out a personal loan to buy me a baker’s rack.

Last week I was determined to win Jenny Frazier’s cryptic typography based contest that she hosted at her blog All Eyes on Jenny.  So I put my Nancy Drew thinking cap on and broke out my mad “googling” skills.  The first day of the contest honestly left me clueless, but than Jenny started to reveal little clues and I finally figured out what the answer was.  Last night my pretty pretty prize was waiting for me when I got home and it was promptly hung on the wall in my kitchen, just high enough above my pink KitchenAid so that it doesn’t end up covered in cake batter.   Obviously all of the blogging in this household happens in the kitchen, even Chris sits at the dining room table to work.  So much for that spare room we made into an office…

Donald tagged me for this “meme” at the beginning of the month and I politely declined, and then it went viral and the whole world started posting their five random facts. Since then, I’ve been tagged by Amy at Eggs on Sunday, The Frantic Home Cook, and Sarah from Sweets by Sarah. It’s very flattering actually, so thank you all! This is way better than being picked last in gym class.

So in no particular order:

I was a “band geek.” I played the flute for 9 years, and haven’t touched it since I graduated from High School. My favorite song to play was Ashokan Farewell, the theme song from Ken Burns’s documentary on The Civil War. I absolutely hated this song called Malagueña. The other day someone was playing it on a guitar in the subway and I wanted to run away screaming.

When I was a kid I would literally watch Annie or The Sound of Music every single day. In kindergarten I got in trouble for singing “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria” when we were supposed to be walking quietly through the hallways to the library. Way to squelch my Musical Theater aspirations!

I really want a Pembroke Welsh Corgi puppy. You know, the cute one that doesn’t have a tail and is always seen frolicking merrily with the Queen of England. Chris and I are ridiculous and sometimes we’ll watch YouTube videos of playful Corgi’s and “ohh and ahh” while thinking up hypothetical names.  Elle, from Elle’s New England Kitchen has two Corgis that are absolutely gorgeous.   If Elle has two, I should be able to have one tiny little puppy, right?

My favorite book isn’t highbrow at all. It’s a novel called Cinnamon Wharf by Janice Young Brooks. The main character, Mary, is adopted as a child by the Beechams. The Beechams are Spice Merchants and the patriarch, George, regales Mary with stories of the spice trade. Of course romance and intrigue ensue. Highlights of the story include a steamy trip to Singapore, a sprawling manor house called “Castlemere,” and secrets galore. It’s mindless good fun and apparently out of print so you’ll have to pick up a used copy online.

One of my first kitchen disasters took place when I was 13. My HomeEc teacher (they called it something much more politically correct but the title escapes me) gave us a handout full of recipes to try at home on our own time. We’d been diligently baking orange muffins for the last few weeks so I felt confident that I was up to the challenge. The recipe I chose to prepare was for Bran Flake Pizza crust. It came out dense and rather disgusting, but I still ate it slathered with mozzarella and tomato sauce from a jar, probably while watching Teen Witch on HBO. No one else would touch it.

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And now I tag:
Blake from Blake Makes
Madeline at Everything Rachael Ray
Lindsay from Love and Olive Oil
Hänni at Hannihaus
Dylan from a Brit Out of Water

“5 Thing” Meme Rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 5 facts about yourself
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment at their Blogs.
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