400 Posts

September 21, 2010

Here is my dilemma.  This is my 400th post.  That is pretty cool, right?  Something to be noted and perhaps celebrated?  Or is it kind of like expecting your friends and family to make a big deal about every single one of your birthdays?  (Er, this is something I do in fact do.)

The truth is that I’m happy about 400.  I’m happy that 400 times I have sat down at our computer, looked out the window as I pondered what to write, winced as I went through my photos, and smiled as I hit publish.  It’s pretty cool having a blog.  And I want to thank you for reading.

I’m feeling a lot of abundance in my life these days.  Fall is here.  It is my favorite season because of sweaters, boots, fires in the fireplace, lots of soup, and squash and chanterelles.  We have two great trips coming up in the next two months.  Thanksgiving is on the horizon and we have a new big table around which to gather our friends and family.  My boys are in more school than ever before which leaves me a little more breathing room and time for myself.  I have happy healthy people surrounding me and more wonderful friends than I ever could have hoped for.  I am surrounded by cookbooks that make me happy and all kinds of kitchen gear which makes my cooking life easier.

Speaking of which, you all know we got swag bags at the IFBC conference, right?  I know so many of you wanted to come to that conference and could not for a variety of reasons.  There were things in that bag that I either did not want or could not use.  The five people staying with me also had things that they did not want or could not use and therefore, I have approximately an IFBC swag bag’s worth of goodies that I would like to send to someone.

In addition to tools I didn’t need (meat thermometer anyone?), I am throwing in my copy of the lovely Sur la Table cookbook that was arguably the best thing in the bag.  Why?  Aren’t there recipes that I could use in there?  Of course.  But I’m sure one of you needs it more than I do.  And since I just happened to re-visit the chocolate factory where the conference was held (for the children!), I bought a little extra for the giveaway.

Here is what I want from you.  And I hope this doesn’t sound weird.  I want to know what your main anxiety dream is.  I was thinking about this the other day.  I have a number of these dreams as do most people.  I dream that I am about to take my French final and I haven’t studied.  I dream that I am about to go on stage and I either can’t remember any of my lines or my costume has a big rip in it.  I dream that I am trying to teach a yoga class and the configuration of the room is really weird and no one is listening to me.  I dream that I am cocktail waitressing and I have a tray full of drinks and I can’t find my tables.  I dream that I let Randy go rather than marrying him and while trying to call him to take me back, my cell phone keeps breaking or I can’t see the numbers.  (That is not a fun one.)

Now.  I am not an anxious person.  In fact, I am a pretty relaxed person.  These dreams crack me up.  I find it interesting that I have never had a mom anxiety dream nor a cooking one – the two things that define me most.  I’m not going to read into what you tell me – I’m just curious.  Leave me a comment and one of my trusty assistants will pick a random winner.  Thank you for reading.  Sincerely.

UPDATE: This has been fascinating reading so far!  I will keep the giveaway open until Saturday, September 25th at 12 noon PDT.  Thank you!

UPDATE #2: Thanks to everyone who commented.  The giveaway is now closed.  I will announce a winner on Monday!



136 Comments »

  1. Mine is always about drowning !!

    Thanks for a great giveaway !

    Comment by Chris — September 22, 2010 @ 11:16 pm

  2. Congrats on 400 posts! Hurrah!

    My most frequent anxiety dream involves me losing control of my car and driving off a bridge. I believe it’s directly related to the time when my tire blew just after I had crossed the Delaware Bridge on my way to NYC. I was terrified, completely out of control… When I have this dream I typically wake up just after my car has cleared the guardrail and is headed for the abyss below. And this is not a good abyss, ala “Garden State” and “good luck exploring the infinite abyss.” This is definitely a bad abyss. Bad.

    Thanks for doing the blog, Dana. It’s great to read.

    Comment by Mary — September 22, 2010 @ 11:24 pm

  3. Congrats on your 400th!
    I usually don’t remember my dreams, but every now and then I have a dream where I am being chased and can’t move my legs.

    Comment by Bebe — September 22, 2010 @ 11:51 pm

  4. My anxiety filled dreams will feature some event that is unresolved for some reason or another. If I left a voicemail regarding a job interview and it went less smoothly than I was hoping, I will dream about the future going haywire and said action back firing. If I have a stress filled event coming up, say moving to a foreign country, I will dream about things like lost luggage, missed flights, etc.

    The funny thing about anxiety riddled dreams is more the ones that didn’t cause it. For several years both my sister and I had dreams where people were trying to attack us (not sure where this came from or why we both had it…preparing for such a possibility?) This never caused anxiety in my dreams. I merely would fight them back and come out on top. She, on the other hand, ran away and was never caught once. So I’m guessing we can predict what would happen regarding the whole fight or flight phenomenon…

    Congrats on 400 posts!

    Comment by Jessica — September 23, 2010 @ 12:02 am

  5. I think you got 400 comments too. Congrats, my dear! I have that dream where I forgot to go to one college class and I do not get to graduate–unfinished business, or something like that is the meaning. Thanks for sharing 400 wonderful recipes and your life with us!!

    Comment by julie — September 23, 2010 @ 12:54 am

  6. My anxious dream is falling behind in a math class and not being able to catch up! totally nerdy.

    Comment by Lisa — September 23, 2010 @ 2:23 am

  7. I dream of driving off of a bridge in the van. Which child do I save? Scary.

    Comment by Jackie — September 23, 2010 @ 2:43 am

  8. My main anxiety dream is where I’m talking to someone and all of a sudden all my teeth start falling out into my hands.

    Comment by Lisa — September 23, 2010 @ 5:13 am

  9. Sometimes I dream that I’m walking in a crowd a people and my legs suddenly give way, as if I my muscles have dissolved. I collapse to the ground and no matter how much I try to get up or even crawl away, I can’t move. I also have dreams about being a college senior again and not being able to graduate as a result of forgetting that I had some long final paper due/forgetting to study for a final. HATE that one because it makes me wake up feeling nervous!

    Comment by Vivian — September 23, 2010 @ 5:39 am

  10. mine is that all my teeth are getting loose and falling out! (i heard it’s a pretty common one, so sorry if it’s lame but it’s the only one i’ve got!)

    Comment by Meredith — September 23, 2010 @ 5:39 am

  11. Hi Dana,

    I stumbled upon your blog a couple of weeks ago after reading a post on A Sweet Spoonful. Just thought I would let you know: it’s wonderful! You have a knack for creating unique chickpea dishes.

    I’m a student, so one of my main anxiety dreams is the one where you find out there’s a test you didn’t know about, or it’s the night before and you notice an assignment you didn’t realize you had is due the next day. That kind of thing. I’ve also had some about all of my teeth falling out for no reason or someone breaking into my apartment and me waking up to a gun pointed at my face. One of the scariest ones I’ve had was that my apartment building caught fire and I arrived home from work to find everything burnt to a crisp. I think this comes from the fact that I’ve been meaning to get renter’s insurance for the past four months after moving in, but haven’t got to it for whatever reason… Better get on that.

    By the way congratulations on 400 posts!

    Comment by Rachel — September 23, 2010 @ 5:45 am

  12. Congratulations on your 400th post! You are absolutely correct about this time of year. Love the leaves turning and all the great fall festivals.

    Comment by Sandra — September 23, 2010 @ 12:13 pm

  13. It has subsided a bit in the last couple of years, but almost monthly I hada dream that I’m in towards the end of my last semester at college or high school and I’ve discovered that I’ve missed a class all semester (forgot about it or something has made me not attend) and I’m not going to graduate. I usually start scrambling around, trying to find a solution to the problem…inevitably I wake up prior to it being solved.

    Comment by christina — September 23, 2010 @ 1:20 pm

  14. How funny is this — I just woke up from one! In it, my daughter’s teacher thought it would be funny to make the parents all take one of the kids’ quizzes and make it count for the students’ grades. It was Algebra and I couldn’t even answer one question.

    Congrats to you! Love your blog. I’ve made lots of the recipes but have never commented.

    Comment by Tracey — September 23, 2010 @ 2:42 pm

  15. this is my recurring anxiety dream: i have to dress up as attila the hun and sing the words to some song i haven’t memorized. i have to get up on stage…with an orchestra! and then the orchestra breaks down, but i have to sing anyway. typical getting on stage and not knowing your lines kind of thing…with a twist!!

    -claire

    Comment by claire — September 23, 2010 @ 5:06 pm

  16. congrats on the big 400! my recent anxiety dreams have to do with running because i’m training for my first marathon. i’ve basically given up trying to get a good night sleep the night before a long run! :)

    Comment by natalie (the sweets life) — September 23, 2010 @ 6:50 pm

  17. Congrats on 400 posts! I love your blog, and though we’re not officially vegetarians, we’re pretty darn close thanks to your influence and fabulous recipes!

    My most recurrent anxiety dream is about my former classroom. I was a kindergarten teacher before I had my own kids, so even though I’ve been out of the classroom for many years, I still have a dream where I show up for the first day of school and there are 50 5-year-olds in my class. OR, I show up for the first day and my Kindergarten class is filled with 11-year-olds (truly a nightmare for this early childhood teacher!)

    Keep up the good work!

    Comment by Megan — September 23, 2010 @ 7:22 pm

  18. Congratulations on 400 posts, that’s amazing! I love your blog and have made many things from it. We have gone from a family that ate meat several times a day to just a few times a week and your recipes and blog are partly to thank for that.

    I have so many anxiety dreams that I’ve lost track (which is weird because I’m not really an anxious person), but the main recurrent ones are teeth crumbling, not being able to find my children (I have a baby, 2 and 4 year old), not being able to physically dial 911 in an emergency and the most frequent, not being able to work my camera (it’s broken, no batteries, won’t turn on). The last one’s funny because I’m not a photographer…but I guess it’s on my mind a lot!

    Thanks and here’s to another 400 posts!

    Comment by Corey — September 23, 2010 @ 8:15 pm

  19. i also have several in various forms – the most frequent seem to involve me in a situation surrounded by people who i know & i am really trying to communicate with them but they don’t seem to get what i am saying. they hear me…..they just don’t get it. ick.

    Comment by mandy — September 23, 2010 @ 8:45 pm

  20. I’m really enjoying browsing thru your recipe archives and can’t wait to try a few.

    Hmm my anxiety mightmare, usually involves being chased thru a dark/closed store. I never see this scary person that I’m running away from. What do you suppose that means???

    Comment by Leticia — September 23, 2010 @ 8:53 pm

  21. Tanti Auguri, Quattro Cento!

    When I was a little girl, I constantly dreamt that Kiss (yes, the big scary make-up band) was chasing me through the streets. They were merely walking, their pace slowed by enormous black platform boots, and I would be running, but somehow I still couldn’t get away from them. I’d turn a corner: they were coming toward me, even tho they were also behind me. Oops.

    Thankfully, I don’t feel nearly as panicked about my past or my future that there’s no safe road to turn onto. Now as for recent anxiety dreams…

    Comment by Dame Dacia — September 23, 2010 @ 9:06 pm

  22. Congratulations Dana!! I love your blog and your philosophy for cooking, eating, and your views on life. I love fall for all the same reasons you do… plus one more: college football. Go Huskies!

    I waited tables in college and often have what we used to call “waitmares”. All my food is up in the window, I have more tables full of impatient and angry customers than I can count, and I’m running all over the restaurant trying to make things happen. I’ve usually forgotten everyone’s order and can’t seem to get anything right. Luckily this wasn’t my usual experience on the job… it’s funny how almost 15 years later I still dream about this!

    Comment by Erin — September 23, 2010 @ 9:09 pm

  23. The zombiepocalypse. Every time I go to bed with something on my mind I need to work out, I have the zombie apocalypse dream. In it, I’m generally calmly working out exactly what supplies my family needs to survive, and/or figuring out how to raid/raiding the local sporting goods store/Wal*Mart for the loot. Strangely, I’m not all that freaked out the first time the dream hits. Generally, if I don’t then act to resolve whatever issue caused the dream in the first place, I get the running from zombies-as-they-overrun-my-stronghold dream. That one is tense to say the least, and if I’m really worried, dogs can become zombies and sometimes mine do.

    Comment by Carolyn — September 23, 2010 @ 9:25 pm

  24. I usually can’t remember much about my anxiety dreams except that they involve running . . . running to something that I am too slow to catch, running from something or someone that is right on my heels, running with the anxious feeling of not being fast enough. Ironically, I think the last time I ran was the 12 minute mile races in high school but in my dreams I am a resistant Flo Jo.

    Comment by Joy — September 23, 2010 @ 10:00 pm

  25. Congrats on your 400th post. I love your writing and your recipes!

    As for anxiety dreams- I used to have the exam one but haven’t had it lately. Occasionally I’ll have the almost falling asleep dream where I’m falling into some abyss but I’m better at realizing that is a dream these days so can usually deal with it. I think the scariest one for me is a dream I’ve had (luckily only a few times) about not being able to get to my baby – people passing him around the room and me not being able to get to him. (He’s not even a baby now – he’s 4 1/2 now). Wierd.

    Comment by Charlotte — September 24, 2010 @ 5:27 am

  26. I love reading your writing..congratulations on your 400th post – an incredible milestone! I had a reoccurring anxiety dream since I was young – I am running hard to get away from someone/something (I can never see what I am running from), but when I look down, I see that my feet are not touching the ground – as if I am running in air – so I am not going anywhere. I have always woken up before whatever is following me actually grabs me. Ironically – since my real anxieties began about 6 months ago..(cancer diagnosis in my youngest daughter)- I haven’t had a dream such as this. My brain must realize I have enough anxiety throughout the day, and not need any additional anxious thoughts at night time!

    Comment by Tara — September 24, 2010 @ 12:25 pm

  27. Congratulations! 400 is great

    Have lucked out lately, no bad dreams, but every once in a while I have one where something awful happens to one of my dogs. Uggg.

    Comment by Pam — September 24, 2010 @ 3:47 pm

  28. I’m glad I’m not the only one that has crazy recurring dreams. I have 3 that shuffle on repeat constantly:

    1) I am waitressing and the entire restaurant fills up and I’m the only one working (I haven’t waited tables in over 7 years)

    2) I’m in an elevator that’s falling

    3) It’s the first day of the quarter in college and I can’t find my class and show up late.

    Maybe somebody could analyze all of these crazy dreams for us??

    Comment by Jenny — September 24, 2010 @ 8:38 pm

  29. Congrats on #400!!!! Keep writing as I love reading your posts!

    I am a pretty vivid person and have dreamt my whole life – awake (Tracy, if you are reading, that is the fish in me) and asleep. Yes, I do dream in color as well. I have two anxiety dreams and have had them for my entire life. A funny thing, my mom, has one that is similar. Not sure which one I should tell, so I will tell the one that remotely has something to do with food. I am standing in a grocery store line getting ready to pay for my groceries (only a couple items). I put them on the counter, the checker (no face, my partners in my dreams rarely have faces), looks up at me, so I can pay and my teeth just start crumbling. I put my hands up to my mouth and my teeth just start falling into my cupped hands … crumbly white teeth and blood pouring into my hands. Then I wake up and my teeth actually hurt. I usually make an appointment to get my teeth cleaned shortly after!

    Is someone going to analyze all of these dreams???

    Comment by Chez Us — September 24, 2010 @ 10:31 pm

  30. I love this! Don’t pick me, because I have all the stuff–but I wanted to share this dream with you.

    My anxiety dream is this:

    My daughter is a baby. I’ve randomly decided to register for some really hard classes that are totally out of my field (like biochemistry) at a local university. Then I forget to go. Now it’s time for the finals and I don’t know anything and I will fail. And failing means that they take away my Ph.D. (I really have a Ph.D.). I have this dream so often, in so many forms, and for so many years, that I actually thought it was real for awhile. Not too long ago,a part of me was totally stressing out that I was going to lose my Ph.D. because I was an idiot and decided to sign up for those stupid classes.

    Nowadays, the dream has evolved into a situation where not only have I registered for the classes, I can’t find the building they’re located in and I can’t find the adviser who will help me with the fact that I haven’t attended the class because I can’t find it. Also, I can’t find the bathroom. Gah!

    Comment by Jeanne — September 24, 2010 @ 11:17 pm

  31. This is fun!
    I don’t dream about my teeth falling out, because I broke off most of my front teeth riding down a gravel hill on my 3-speed bike when I was 9 years old! Now I have dreams that the numbers on the cell phone are scrambled, I’m in a strange and scary place and have to make an emergency call. When I do get through to the wrong person I can’t tell them where I am because the street signs are also jumbled and there are no house numbers. When my husband is out of town I frequently dream that someone is furiously ringing my doorbell. I wake up at 3:30 or so, convinced the sound was real. If I answer it will I get murdered? If I ignore it will I find someone dead on my doorstep in the morning? Hard to get back to sleep.

    Comment by Lynn D — September 24, 2010 @ 11:53 pm

  32. Recently, I’ve been having a lot of dreams where I’m in an enormous car at night in Paris, and I realize I don’t know how to drive or at least can’t remember what to do to slow the car down and steer it properly. Scary – but at least I’m back in Paris!

    I also sometimes have a dream where I’m being followed by a green-ish mist – the only sound I can hear is my heavy breathing as I try to get away. Soon I realize I can’t walk any faster or my legs become rooted to the ground altogether and the thing following me is getting closer and closer, until suddenly my legs begin to move as if I were on a bicycle, and then I’m suddenly flying away. On an invisible bicycle.

    Comment by Maggie — September 25, 2010 @ 8:05 am

  33. My husband works in Iraq and I have recurring dreams that he has been hurt, or that someone there who wants to hurt him is waiting outside my house to grab me. It doesn’t help that the phone lines often get crossed so sometimes when I try to call him, I hear a random Iraqi guy on the other end. Yikes! Truth be told, I read food blogs, yours included, to relax.

    Comment by Kristen — September 25, 2010 @ 11:40 am

  34. Happy 400!
    Ya know, I don’t really seem to have anxiety dreams at all. Which I guess in a way is good.

    Comment by peabody — September 25, 2010 @ 9:42 pm

  35. I know I missed the comment deadline here…but…I have had the dream where a tooth falls out and crumbles a few times over the past couple of weeks. It’s so creepy. I read that it was a sign of anxiety so it’s interesting to see that others have the same dream! I just had a big work event so I’m hoping that was the subconscious root of my stress!

    Comment by Maris (In Good Taste) — September 25, 2010 @ 10:41 pm

  36. Congratulations on 400 posts!! Can’t wait to see many more. :) That’s so cool that they held IFBC at Theo Chocolates!

    Comment by Ashley — October 18, 2010 @ 2:01 pm



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