Back
home again in Indiana.  Ten plus hours  of dry recyled air in a plane
reactivated my cold with a vengeance which left me with a couple of days in bed
to brood about my life.

I’ve
been getting a kick out of reading the “Five Things You Don’t Know About Me”
posts as the meme has slowly spread around the blogosphere, marveling at the
quirky and impressive details that lurk in the lives of my fellow food
bloggers. My amusement and entertainment
came to an abrupt halt, however, when I was tagged by the beautiful and
talented Bea, at La Tartine Gourmande, to share five things of my own.

On
reflection, it seems to me that my life is an open blog. Most of the things about me that are worth knowing, I have already shared; those I’ve held back truly aren’t very interesting,
or they are just plain embarrassing.  But
I am nothing if not a good sport, so here goes.

1. This
is not my only blog. My day job is
teaching political science to undergraduates at Indiana  University  –  mostly American politics, though I do have a Food and Politics class that
links my two worlds in a fun way. As
part of the American politics gig, I am a coauthor of an Intro textbook – one
of those 800 page monsters we all hated to lug around in college – called Keeping the Republic. The book has its own blog (KTRBlog) designed
to help keep readers current with national events. Unfortunately, its author has not been too diligent lately, and the blog is lagging a bit behind.

2. I
am 51 years old. It’s a wonderful age,
but OLD in the food blog world where it seems like almost everyone is younger
than 40. Took me a long time to find my
food writing voice – I didn’t even start looking until 2000 or thereabouts – and though I have
long kept a journal, a public version was a bit of a generational leap. I like to wonder what I would have done if
blogging had been an option in my twenties and thirties. All you people out there impress the hell out
of me with your graceful voices, your curiosity about food, and your immense
talent and zest for enjoying life.

3.  I
wrote a cookbook. Seems like a natural
thing to mention on a food blog, huh? But
somehow I don’t think it has ever come up. I should put a link to Amazon somewhere on the site. The book is Indiana  Cooks! Coauthored with my pal Scott Feickert, it profiles 15 of the best
restaurants in Indiana  (in 2005), with menus and recipes from each chef and gorgeous photos. The pictures were taken by Tom Stio who did a
super job. I learned a lot about
photography from Tom by tagging along to each photo shoot, and he inspired me
to try it on my own. There is another Indiana  food book  in the
works now – Home Grown Indiana – with
another coauthor named Scott (this one Scott Hutcheson, aka the Hungry
Hoosier.) We are exploring the great
producers and fabulous food finds around the state (he’s taking the north, I am
taking the south, and we’re splitting the middle.) No pictures in that one, but more words. You’ll hear a lot about it as I crank up to
the May deadline.

4. I
love great tasting, beautiful looking food (no surprises there.) Some of my favorite
meals have been in places like the French Laundry, or Alain Ducasse’s Louis XV
in Monaco. But much to the dismay of some of my foodie
friends, I also love more humble fare. Tuna casseroles, noodle soup, poached eggs on buttered toast, a fry up
of nothing but potatoes and onions, all crispy and fragrant. Last night my husband cooked a dinner of
tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich for his snotty wife and served it to
her in bed, where she huddled miserably, surrounded by wads of Kleenex. Nothing has ever tasted better. (I am also a fiend for seasonal candy: Valentine’s Day hearts – yes, those chalky little candies with the messages on them – peeps, the staler the better, and candy corn. What can I say?)

5. I
had colon cancer 14 years ago, when I was 37. Sometimes
it pays to be a hypochondriac – this time it saved my life. I am fully recovered – the only lasting
consequence is a surplus of gratitude that makes even the lousiest days seem golden. Get those colonoscopies you’ve been putting
off. No matter how bad the prep is, it’s better than being dead.

And
that’s it for me. I’d like to know five
surprising things about everyone whose blogs I read – I have been delighted to
find out that Bea speaks Dutch, that Lisa can drive a tractor, and that Lydia
actually survived for two weeks on a tuna sandwich and Good Humor chocolate
éclair diet – but I can tag only five, so I will pick the following:

Jared at Alaska Cooks, because his writing is a
truly wonderful  feast.

Mae at riceandnoodles, because her
photography always makes me hungry.

Kevin at Acme
Instant Food, because he makes me laugh and because I love his kitchen.

Renee at Feed Me/Drink Me, because her
caustic views on food in the Circle City keep me  endlessly entertained.

Biggles at MeatHenge,  because he knows
everything about cooking meat, and he’s a hoot besides.

Folks, this
meme’s been out there for a while, so if you’ve already done this and I’ve
missed it, send me the link so I can catch up! And if you hate memes (or like my buddy Lisa, can’t stand being told
what to do), then give it a pass and no hard feelings.