Kreativ Blogger Award

Thank you, Judy King, at Mexico Insights: Facts, Figures, Folklore & Fiestas for awarding me The Kreative Blogger award! Judy has lived at Lake Chapala since 1990 and from reading her blog, she really loves living there. Maybe I'll pay you a visit, Judy!

In keeping with the requirements for accepting this award, I have agreed to mention my seven favorite blogs and to bore you with a few details about my life:

SEVEN THINGS You Wish You Didn't Know About Me:
1. I am not, nor ever will be, the kind of cook my mother was (that honor goes to my sister Ester), though I am trying very hard.

2. Since I grew up speaking Spanish, learning French was just a hop, skip and a jump away. I'm not as fluent as I used to be, but I can still converse in French with my French and Belgian friends.

3. I love classic British literature and poetry, especially Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and The Bronte Sisters. Still, I wish I could write like Isabel Allende.
4. Besides blogging, I have a real passion for art, gardening, sewing, knitting and, of course, cooking. And collecting books--tons of them. Everything from art books to reference books, books on knitting and sewing, novels, and of course cookbooks.
5. I love it when my husband cooks for me. But, I have to shake my head whenever I hear someone say, "My husband/significant other does all the cooking at home because I hate to cook [as in "ha! ha! how's that for role reversals?, and my what a fine joke on him."]." Mira, chiquita, you can't have your pastel and eat it, too. Any intelligent, relatively healthy adult who eats should learn to cook at least something homemade, no que no?
6. I have a great deal of respect for people who work hard for a living, people like hotel maids, restaurant workers, field workers, janitors, etc.--and am not at all crazy about those who treat these harding working people with a condescending sense of their own perceived superiority, which only betrays their smallness of mind (and of heart).
And finally . . .
7. As much as I love Mexican food, I cannot say that any cuisine is superior to the rest—just as I cannot say that my culture is better than all others. Regardless of where we come from, regardless of our position and experience in life, we all need love and good food and understanding—isn't that what life is all about?
SEVEN BLOGGERS who deserve to receive a Kreativ Blogger Award:

I don't as a general rule write any restaurant reviews. I leave that to the experts like my bloggy friend, Barbara Hansen, former "Borderline" columnist for the Food Section of The Los Angeles Times, my favorite newspaper. Her delicious and informative blog, Table Conversation, serves up a cornucopia of delicious reviews of eateries in and around my hometown of Los Angeles, California, not to mention of the amazing food she encounters on her many travels around the world. If her name sounds familiar, she wrote the very popular Mexican Cookery, a down-to-earth guide to cooking everyday Mexican food. Thank God it is out of print, because if it weren't, you'd buy her book and say adiós to my blog!

Emma Álvarez Gibson, this "whip smart media maven" is my go-to gal for anything having to do with social networking and thinking out of the box in terms of getting the most out of your business and brand. She just deactivated her Facebook account—the wave of the future perhaps?
I cannot not mention my little friend Jenny, whose blog, Jenny Draws, features her whimsical childlike drawings. She is a sweet and shy, but with a little encouragement she will fly.


I'm jealous of Leslie Limon who is living the ex-pat life in Mexico with her husband and children. Trust me, Leslie, I wish I was at that little ranchito with no internet (!) and other "modern conveniences" right now.

Color Informal, Virginia's blog of her photography and colorful artwork, is a cerebral, but oddly heartfelt, little artistic masterpiece.

Of course, I have never personally met Kobico, the urbane gardener by way of San Franciso, California/Lorraine, France, who feels right at home with mole and picked pig's feet as she does with Cervelles au Beurre Noir (Calf's Brains in Brown butter Sauce). I've never met her eyeball-to-eyeball, but I feel that I know her, especially when she writes at her blog, The Mindless Meanderings of a Middle-aged Maniac.

You gotta love Dariana and Dariela, two Venezuelan sisters who head up Folkloreye. Their obsession with design and paper yields some beautiful results.
Elizabeth Rosas has a singular talent for taking the smallest flower and using it to inspire her to create her one of a kind silver jewelry. She represents what is possible when one decides to create something beautiful and handmade.
Next Post: Tamalera Tales: Or, How To Get Even With Your Mother-in-Law. Then it will be time to cook a little fish!