Carrots in the Kitchen

That's the name of my new recipe book.

One of my resolutions this year is to find a new recipe each week. So far, so good (well, I only started started this week, as last week was still vacation, and therefore did not count as the actual new year...)

I've been trying to decide what to name it, so I can decorate it all prettily, which will make me more likely to actually put recipes in it rather than just (incorrectly) think I'll be able to remember them all, and that's what I got.

Carrots in the Kitchen.

Let me explain. It's all about name pronunciation. Everyone gets it wrong (in fact, I'd be willing to bet a dollar that everyone who reads this blog and hasn't actually met me thinks my name sounds differently than it does). When I taught at UF (yay for the 2009 nat'l champs!) as part of my master's assistantship, I used to tell my students that I understood if they couldn't remember, but please, please, please (as in, don't get on my bad side or else your semester may not be as nice, just saying. Kidding! I loved all my students...) if you're not sure how to say it, just call me "hey you". Or, "excuse me". Some actually called me "Professor", which made me feel absolutely old.

So, what's the pronunciation? My name is Charis. I have found that most people automatically think the first syllable sounds like share, as in "share and share alike", and that the second sounds like eess, as in "lease".

Wrong.

It's actually pronounced with the first syllable care as in "careful" and the second iss "as in kiss".

So, to make it easy to remember for the little ones that I later taught, I'd say that "it's like 'carrots' without the T."

Kids always got that. Grownups, not as often. So now when I meet someone, the people who I'm with usually say that "it's like 'Paris' with a K." Which isn't true, because it's actually a CH, but let's not get started. And that isn't so much my favorite because we all know of another Paris who I wouldn't necessarily want to remind people of....and once in awhile someone will actually call me Paris.....sigh....

Anyway, so a term of endearment from the kiddies and for me was 'Carrots'. I liked it. I thought it was cute when they'd call me that. And I don't understand little 'un humor - I could make my friend's six-year-old giggle forever by just repeating "Hello, my name is Carrots and I like to eat vegetables."

Do you get it? I don't.

Anyway, so Carrots in the Kitchen is my new recipe book. And now you can say my name. Why you'd want to, I don't know, but when I read in my head I hear it, so I thought it may be useful for my 3 blog readers :)

Happy Friday!