happy-new-year
Thoughts

Happy New Year! & My first Liebster Award

Happy New Year to all of you! I wish you all a 2013 filled with love and happyness!

happy-new-year
 
 The beginning of a new year is always a time for looking forward to the future with hope and good thoughts, and having said that, I would love to share with you some of my thoughts for this year that has just started.
 “We are what we eat!” – here is this old saying that I believe it becomes more and more actual in our days, therefore here is an invitation for you: think about what you are eating, try to be more and more conscious about the food that you are placing on your plate every day: healthy food is not only tastier but it will give you a healthier body and a better state of mind! Source your ingredients as locally as you can and in this way you will also encourage the local producers while benefitting of fresher and healthier produce to put on your table. With these thoughts I would like to wish you a healthier and tastier 2013!
Now let’s start with the Liebster Award.
I would like to thank Hannah for the honour of nominating me for this lovely award! I have received the nomination while I was on holiday, and the surprise was even greater, as I knew that I had not been posted on this blog for a long time. To be perfectly honest, I was kind of thinking of giving up writing in English, when I have received her email. It was a sign, i thought – it was definitely a good sign, which gave me a reason to come back to this blog and start writing again. For this reason, one more huuuuge thank you to you, Hannah! 🙂
About the Liebster Award, in a few words: this Award is addressed to new food-bloggers (with less than 200 followers) and I believe that is the most beautiful way for us to get to know each other.
The rules for accepting the Liebster Award are as follows:
– if you have received the Award, you will have to state 11 odd facts about yourself, answer the 11 question you have received and then ask 11 questions to other bloggers that you admire.
– choose 5-10 new bloggers (with less than 200 followers) that you admire and link them in your post
– visit their page and let them know about the Award
– follow the tagger and visit at least 3 of their nominees
– spread the love! (and remember: no tag backs!)
 
        It was no easy job in finding not-so-famous food bloggers, as usually they only appear in the last search pages, and for me it was even harder as I wanted to find only vegetarian/vegan bloggers. However, once I have started I must say that it was a rather pleasant activity, and also a truly rewarding one: I have discovered a lot of new brilliant veggies out there, not to mention that I have bookmarked lots and lots of new inspiring recipes to try in this new year! So here it is then: for new veggie friends all around the food-blogging world!
 
My 5 favourite new food bloggers are:
Preeti – from The London Vegetarian: a lifelong veggie, living in London. I absolutely loved her pumpkin, potato and kidney bean soup, and of course, not to mention all the indian inspired recipes 🙂
Sarah – from Pearl & Pine: athough not all of her recipes are vegetarian, I love her blog so much and I just had to name her. Sarah recipes and especially her photos are absolutely amazing!
Renuka – from Cumin & Cardamom: oh, all that Indian food! There is something about the indian food that makes it addictive. Don’t ask me what, it might be all those beautiful spices that are mixed together with what I call it an art, or maybe is just me, and my lovely memories from my indian holiday that are making me craving for curries and chapatis and all that lovely basmati rice… Thank you Renuka for your lovely recipes (I am still dreaming about that Baigan Ka Salan 🙂
David – from Kitchen 72 – colour, taste, a trully inspiring choice of ingredients and absolutely stunning photos: this are the words to describe David’s blog. Yes, I know, it’s not a veggie blog, but all that beautifull food-styling that I saw in his photos really impressed me!
Tandy – from tandysinclair.com – her asparagus soup is on top of my “recipes that I need to try” list, is so simple and full of flavour! I also enjoy reading her reviews & interviews, and to be honest I was very surprised to find that she has only under 200 followers on facebook, there is so much good information on her blog.
 
My 11 questions for you are:
1. What is your favourite kitchen tool?
2. What is the most unusefull kitchen gadet that you have ever had?
3. What was your menu for this Christmas?
4. What book do you read at this moment (if any)?
5. What was the most uninspired present that you have ever gave to someone?
6. Which is your favourite holiday destination?
7. Who is your favourite celebrity chef?
8. Name one of the most difficult recipes you have ever made.
9. Which is your all time favourite movie?
10. Please list one of your 2013 new year’s resolution.
11. What is your favourite recipe and why?
 
My answers to Hannah’s questions are:
1. What are your 3 favourite songs at the moment?
Imany – Slow down; Melody Gardot – Because; Biagio Antonacci – Non vivo piu senza te.
2. What colour do you wear the most and why?
All shades of grey and alternatively red (it depends on my mood), I just love these two colours.
3. What was the most embarrassing fashion choice of your youth?
A bright green fairy-style dress that I wore at my first high-school party.
4. Do you have a hidden tallent?
I like knitting, I just wish I would have more spare time for this.
5. What were your grandfathers’ occupations?
One of them was an accountant and the other one an electrician.
6. What was your favourite subject in school?
Literature.
7. What sport are you best at?
Oh, this one is tough… I’m not really a sport person, never had any sport talent whatsoever.
8.Would you rather always lose or never play?
Definitely rather lose.
9. What would you choose to eat for your last meal?
Oh dear! Does it have to be only one dish? I will have some pasta then… with cream, gorgonzola and nuts. Ah, and a chocolate mousse 🙂
10. If you had to go back to school for a degree or certificate, what would it be?
It would be the cookery school, most certain.
11. Would you rather be an effective politician forced to resign in disgrace or an ineffective politician that nobody will remember?
I would rather not be a politician at all to be honest. It is a mistery world for me, this world of politicians 🙂
 
And now comes the fun bit, the 11 odd things about me:
1. It’s been 10 years now since i go to Venice every single year at least once, and I still somehow manage to get lost on the streets.
2. If I really like a book, I do read it over and over again.
3. Sometimes I take things too seriously.
4. I have never (yet) managed to properly cook a fresh artichoke.
5. I am afraid of spiders and of speaking in public.
6. Every now and then I need to reset my passwords as I always, always forget them!
7. I have more than 20 simple grey t-shirts.
8. I do not have any game installed in my computer (not even solitaire).
9. I drove for almost an entire year with begginer’s plates on my car. …and I would probably still had them if they didn’t got stollen 🙂
10. When I was in high-school I had a crush on Slash from Guns’n Roses.
11. Writing this was more difficult than I had imagined 🙂
 
I really hope you will enjoy this Award as much as I did and that you will find the time to pass it forward. 🙂
 
love,
Andra

Andra Constantinescu

I am a classically trained chef, with a BSc in Culinary Arts and a Masters Degree in Food Business Management.

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