Winners + I'm a slacker

Congratulations to Malinda, Max, & Natalie! Max, please send me your address. The other two, hopefully I can just give you yours in person. :)

Also, the above-mentioned Marvelous Max tagged me eons ago. Yeah, I'm slow. Anyway, I bring you Six Random Things About Preethi. I'll try to share truly random ones, as opposed to things I find perfectly normal, like being a grammar Nazi, alphebetizing my spices, and only eating two flavors of yogurt.

1. While I actually DO find this entirely normal, I'll share it because so many people think I am absolutely crazy for this, including my husband. I don't eat cereal with milk. There. I said it. This stems from a long-standing aversion to any and all things even remotely mushy. I cannot tolerate cereal that is anything but perfectly hard. The ONLY cereals I will eat with milk are Grape Nuts (don't tell my company) and, on occasion, a really hard granola. Honey Nut Cheerios - plain. Frosted or Honey Nut Shredded Wheat - plain. Corn Flakes - never ever ever BLECH they even get soggy in my mouth DISGUSTOID. (Random side note: when Dan got his wisdom teeth out several years ago, he decided it would be a great idea to blend all his foods so he could drink them through a straw, including cereal with milk. He continued to do this for some time after, asserting that it was way faster to drink 3 bowls of cereal than to eat them. He thought this was the best idea ever, and made me one. I took one sip and nearly hurled.)
2. I really adore straws. I think they are so functional. I always have one in my Nalgene bottle at work, because it just makes it easier to drink from them. They are particularly useful in the car, because then you don't have to tip your bottle to drink, thus spilling on yourself 95% of the time. A friend and I once created the KPSC - the Kelly Preethi Straw Club.
3. I am a huge stickler about not listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving. I've actually felt guilty the last few days because everywhere I go, it's Christmas-this and Christmas-that and Christmas music is playing and much as I know I should be vehemently opposed, I get slightly giddy. But I refuse to play any myself. Except to and from rehearsals for our stake's performance of Handel's Messiah. This is a tradition from at least my freshman year, and maybe before, that, in the spirit of the season, allows us to listen to Christmas music on the way to and from rehearsals prior to Thanksgiving.
4. I'm only really attached to one baby name, and it is after a character in a book that I read in 6th or 7th grade, reinforced by biblical and historical figures. (Ten points to anyone who guesses it!)
5. I really love to staple things. For some reason, the noise is really satisfying to me. For some odd reason, it reminds me of the crimping that my orthodontist used to do on my braces...I get this odd sort of pleasure out of making the same sound.
6. I dislike clothes shopping. While I certainly love clothes (probably too much...), I really hate having to search through racks (especially disorganized ones! which is why I particularly loathe shopping in most department stores) and having to try things on - it's such a pain. It's my same issue with actually liking to be vegetarian at most restaurants because it limits the options. We once went to a vegetarian restaurant in Greece and I was really stressed with all the options.

I tag...Alex, Whitney, and Christiane.

Food obsessions

Do you ever get really really extremely into one kind of food? Because I sure do. I really like food in general. It's probably a little sad how much I actually think about/plan/consume food. I also like a wide variety of foods. Dan teases me about being a picky eater, but I vehemently deny this. No, I don't eat meat, and yes, I find most cereal (and other highly processed items) rather tasteless and bland, but other than that, I generally like most foods. I don't think anyone who likes all fruits and vegetables can be counted as a picky eater.

In any case, despite my love of meal planning and trying out new recipes and stalking Smitten Kitchen, I often go through phases during which I crave a particular kind of food. No, it is never anything normal like chocolate chip cookies (which I do love), thanks for asking. Take, for instance, the summer of 2007. For a period of several months, I craved Grape Nuts with Original Silk soy milk and blueberries something fierce. This coming from the girl who, as mentioned, doesn't really like cereal, and generally finds cereal WITH milk to be entirely repulsive. But, for some reason, I just loved this combination and ate about 4 bowls of it a day. I am gratefully astonished my teeth are still intact.

My current obsession is cottage cheese with fruit for breakfast. I was struggling because I had decided my Grape Nuts would get way too soggy in my Greek yogurt by the time I arrived at work, and it was entirely too steamy to even consider eating oatmeal in the morning. And dry Honey Nut Shredded Wheat would only keep me full for approximately 4 seconds. This is when I discovered cottage cheese with fresh fruit. Oh my heavens. It is SO delicious. My favorite is with either blueberries or a diced pear. Mmmm.

And now you can all go laugh at the fact that I just wrote an entire post glorifying cottage cheese.

Obsessed

Unfortunately, I am the type of person whose taste buds decide to become soul mates with something for some indeterminate period of time. And much as Dan enjoys eating the exact same thing for dinner every night for a week, well, not so much. A couple of summers ago, it was Grape Nuts (don't tell my manager) with soy milk and fresh blueberries. Mmm. Random, I know (especially since I refused cereal pretty much throughout my early years) but oh so delicioso. Seriously, I would eat literally 3-4 bowls every day. And crave it when I was eating something else, caving to my vegetable appreciation. What sane person craves Grape Nuts??

Lately it has been Nutella. But not just any old Nutella. Nutella with coconut and bananas (occasionally substituted for strawberries) on toast (or crepes, if available). I won't eat it without any one of those components. No fruit - too sweet; no coconut - too...something. It just doesn't have the same flavor. No Nutella - well then what would be the point of anything?

It's seriously getting ridiculous. This part is especially embarrassing, but I like it on bread that has been sitting out for a little bit so it has that crackly sort of exterior, without actually being toasted through. Lately I've made myself layer on more banana to increase the fruit:carb ratio.

Another dear love is homemade pesto. I made a cilantro bell pepper one yesterday and pretty much want to scoop up the extra with my bare hands.

Am I the only one with insatiable food cravings? What do you crave?