Another Food Meme: You Are What You Eat

I don't ordinarily play the meme tag game, but this one caught my eye. Apparently, it's been passed around a lot – I found it on the Books Please blog, where Margaret said she got it from Geranium Cat at Cat Musings, who got it from Ted at Bookeywookey, who got it from Ganda at eat drink one woman, who seemingly got it from Molly at les cadeaux, who got it from . . . . Well, I guess it might very well continue on back to the beginnings of blogdom, but I just now found it.

I probably won't "tag" anybody else, but here goes my list.

What did you eat/drink today?

Oatmeal for breakfast (just plain old Quaker Oats), with blueberries and a little brown sugar. Starbuck's Breakfast Blend decaf, black. Peanut butter on whole wheat sandwich for lunch (Skippy Reduced Fat Creamy Style – wish Peter Pan would put its low fat version back on the market). I know peanut butter is a fairly high-calorie choice, but it's supposed to be good for cholesterol, and it's a quick fix. Also some Welch's grape juice. Also a pear – tasty, but not as good as the ones we got from Harry & David at Christmas.

Haven't had dinner yet, but it looks like it'll be pizza and a green salad (Wednesday is pizza night at our house). Also, a tiny piece of dark chocolate after dinner: since M. was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes last year, we don't do desserts anymore.

Probably a cup of tea just before bedtime.

Oh, and quite a bit of Dasani.

What do you never eat/drink?

I'll eat almost anything I don't have to cook myself. But I don't like squid and I can't digest cucumbers. Tasted kidneys in England once, and swore never to make that mistake again. And I've never been able to bring myself to try sweetbreads, tongue, or tripe, so I don't know if I'd like those things or not. Never drink buttermilk. Or Gatorade. Don't drink a lot of soft drinks, and I'm not crazy about Scotch.

Favorite failsafe thing to cook (if you cook) or defrost if you don't.

I'm a terrible cook, and I've never really enjoyed cooking. M. is a much better cook than I am. So I wouldn't say that anything is "failsafe" in my hands. Well, I used to make a great pot roast, but we don't really eat beef these days. However, I've discovered supermarket rotisserie-roasted chickens – they're always tasty and easy to reheat.

Complete this sentence: In my refrigerator, you can always find . . .

Perrier, tomato or V8 juice, fat-free milk, Kraft grated parmesan cheese, various vitamin supplements, and probably several items well past their throw-away dates.

What is your favorite kitchen item?

Well, it would have to be the microwave, wouldn't it? That and my little rubbery thingy for unscrewing lids. Ok, AND my antique Sunbeam pop-up toaster which I got when I was married 110 years ago, and still works perfectly well, thank you very much.

Where would you recommend eating out - either on home turf or elsewhere?

Close to home: Taverna Cretekou in Old Town Alexandria; La Tomate Italian Bistro in DC. Further afield: Victor's (Cuban food) and Molyvos (Greek) in NYC; Schilo's Delicatessen in San Antonio. I was going to include the Berghoff restaurant in Chicago, but remembered that they closed recently. Bummer.

The world ends tomorrow. What would you like for your last meal?

One of M's char-broiled burgers with extra sharp cheddar cheese, and a side of my own potato salad (one of the few things I can make without screwing it up) – just the way my mother used to make it, with chopped pimientos and lots of dill pickle and massive dollops of Kraft mayonnaise. Or, a generous serving of my Aunt Gussie's chicken and dumplings. Which would be difficult because she died in 1971. But we're talking fantasy here, right?