I've Been Nominated for a Liebster Award

What is a Liebster award? you ask.  It is an award for small bloggers, like me, with less than a thousand followers.  We share our blog and other small blogs that we love with our readers in the hopes that you, too, will take a look at the blogs we nominate and love and enjoy them as much as we.

I was nominated by Linda of 2 Cookin' Mamas.  As the title of her blog suggests, Linda, is one of a team of moms (the other being her daughter, Christine) who blog about recipes and nutrition.  Of course, they also allow for some goodies as well just to "sweeten life up a bit".  They have even published a cookbook. Very impressive.  You are going to want to check them out for sure.

Let me tell you 11 random facts about me to get you started:

1. I used to dream of owning a B&B but now that it is a possibility I am not sure I want to work that hard.
2. My first career was as a police officer for a large city.  I retired about 10 years ago as a detective assigned to sex crimes and crimes involving children.
3. This is my second marriage and have been happily attached with my partner in crime and sous chef for the past 23 years.  I can't imagine life without him.
4. We live on 12 acres and do our best to live healthfully, organically and sustainably. We raise much of our own meat, allowing them to live humanely and hormone free.  What meat we do not raise we buy from fellow farmers who have the same values as we.  I belong to the only organic CSA in the area.
5. I brought a daughter and a son into our marriage.  My husband, Frank, brought in a son and a daughter. They are now all great adults of whom we couldn't be prouder.
6. After my retirement we began taking in exchange students and have been blessed with 3 more daughters and 2 more sons over the years.  One of our daughters, Tingting, has remained with us in the USA for the past 8 years and has given us our first granddaughter, Melody Elizabeth.
7. We are huge animal lovers and the proud owners of 3 rescue mutts.  
8. We love to scuba dive and most of our vacations are for this purpose.
9. I also love to read, hike, cook and entertain and will share these things with you on my blog.
10. I belong to a lot of blogging clubs that are tons of fun.
11. I could not do all of the things I love to do...farming, cooking, entertaining, traveling....without my husband who is my greatest gift.

Those who are nominated for this award must also follow a few simple rules.  These are as follows:

• Thank the blogger who nominated you and link to their blog
• Display the Liebster Award badge on your blog.
• Answer 11 questions about yourself.  These are provided by the person who nominated you.
• Share 11 random facts about yourself  if you wish.  This is optional but fun.
• Nominate 5 or more bloggers with less than a thousand followers who you believe deserve this reward.
• Create a new list of 11 questions for your nominees.
• Notify your nominees.

Here are the questions that I am required to answer:

1. What inspired you to start a blog?  At the time I started my blog, I was caregiving for my parents and as such was spending a lot of time at home on the computer.  I would post my recipes and menus on facebook and friends kept telling me I should start a blog.
2. How did you come up with the name for your blog?  My blog has turned into a foodie blog but that wasn't my intent when it first started.  My intent was to share my days on the farm which just happen to include a lot of cooking because that is one of my loves.
3. What is your biggest challenge when it comes to your blog?  My biggest challenge is finding the time that it takes.  Blogs, especially foodie blogs, take a lot of time.  Time for creating and researching recipes, time for preparing the food and taking the photos, time for writing and critiquing.
4. What is the best and worst meal you have ever made?  Actually it is easier for me to come up with my worst because, thankfully, this happens infrequently.  One of my worst, as my son is always anxious to remind me of, was a dinner I made while he was young and I was distracted. Leathery pork chops and runny mashed potatoes, it was very sad.  The next worst was a turkey curry that I made using leftover Thanksgiving turkey.  It went in the trash and we ordered pizza.  I think one of my best or at least my husband's favorite is Chicken Marsala.
5. Where do you find the inspiration for your posts?  Lately most of my inspiration comes from cooking clubs I have joined SRC, Cook the Books, Food n Flix, The Book Club Cookbook CC. Blogger's CLUE, Foodie Extravaganza, Sunday Supper, The French Winophiles, Wine Pairing Weekend and special events held by other bloggers.  
6. What do you do when you try a new recipe and it doesn't work out?  If at first you don't succeed try try again.  Most of the time I can tell by the recipe ingredients and procedure how the recipe will turn out so I do most of my tweaking before the first attempt to adapt it to our tastes and pantry. 
7. What regional food do you enjoy cooking the most?  It is a tie between Mexican and Italian with Asian following closely behind.
8. What 3 words describe you best?  Blessed, Happy, Loyal
9. When you dine at a restaurant do you order something you would like to make or an old favorite?  When I dine out I normally order lamb or shellfish as these are things my husband does not enjoy so I rarely make them at home.
10. When you have a bad day what normally makes you feel better?  Stepping into the kitchen always brings a song to my lips.  I hum or sing the entire time I am in there.  A glass of wine and a hug always helps too.
11. Other than blogging, what is your favorite hobby?  Without a doubt, Scuba and Travel.

Here are my nominees. I hope you enjoy visiting their blogs as much as I do.

• Rebekah of Making Miracles.  I have been following Rebekah for a while now.  She shares snippets of her life as a wife and mom as well as of a surrogate for those who cannot have children of their own.  Rebekah belongs to several of the same cooking clubs as I and posts some great recipes.
• Judy from Knotty Needle is my newest blog friend.  We just met through Chaotic Goddesses Local Flavors Swap and I am really enjoying her posts about quilting, reading and family.
• If you are interested in finding some great recipes you need to check out Sarah of Fantastical Sharing of Recipes.  Sarah and I also belong to several of the same cooking clubs and she always impresses me with her posts.
• One of my best friends here in this world of blogging is Paula of Smidgens, Snippets and Bits.  I have never met Paula personally, (I hope to remedy that someday soon) but I consider her a good friend all the same. 
• My very first blogging friend is Amy of Amy's Cooking Adventures.  I would not be part of this wonderful world of blogging if not for Amy.