I have seen lots of awesome Holiday Cookies popping up all over the Blogosphere. My friend Judy and a few of my other great blogging buddies are doing the 12 Days of Cookies and I am getting really inspired to start baking. My mom and I always bake Holiday Cookies together (see here and here for last year’s cookie series) and we are heading down to see her the week of Christmas, so we will do our cookie baking then.

As you all know Roberto and I got a puppy a few months ago, Peperoncino (- but we call him Pepino because we found most people have trouble pronouncing “Peperoncino”). Pepino has been going to Puppy School and the trainers had a big holiday party for all the dogs in all their classes at a dog park over the weekend . So since I can never go to a party empty handed, I decided that I wanted to make some holiday treats for them all to enjoy at the party. I had this recipe for pet treats that came with a cute dog bone cookie cutter, so I decided to make them, and add some peanut butter to the mix since that is Pepino’s favorite flavor. Also making my own treats makes me feel better about what I am giving them. I am not just about healthy eating for humans! The dough was great to work with and it made about 70 treats!!!! Sadly I couldn’t find the cookie cutter, so Roberto put his artist hat on and devised a way to make the shapes.

Somehow Pepino knew these treats were for him, because the whole time we were making them, he was right at our feet in the kitchen sitting on his “magic carpet” – the carpet that when he sits on it, gets him treats. It was so cute!

We had a great time at the party and Pepino had fun playing with friends. He shared his treats very nicely and asked for us to make them again soon. I am going to make the same recipe again, but instead of Peanut Butter I am going to use cheese. Our cat Nimue, loves cheese and it is the only “treat” she will eat. I am sure Pepino won’t mind!
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****Forgive me, but I have to pack a lot into this post about all sorts of events and wonderful giveaways and contests going on this month! So please read through this whole post if you don’t want to miss it!!!****

Again, I would love to congratulate all the participants of this month’s Royal Foodie Joust!

The Royal Foodie Joust is an awesome monthly peer voted competition that is hosted on
The LeftoverQueen/FoodieBlogroll Forum! It gets better each and every month as the competition gets stiffer as Jousters try to outdo each other each month! It is also one of the friendliest competitions I have ever seen. So please don’t be intimidated to come and join us this month! We don’t bite, unless of course there is real food in our faces.

The only rules for the competition is that each Jouster create one dish and each entry must feature 3 ingredients in common. This competition has been referred to many times as the “Iron Chef” of the Food Blogosphere. Each month’s ingredients are chosen by the previous month’s winner. The winner of each Joust not only wins the Queen’s favor, bragging rights and a cool icon to put on their blog, but is also awarded with a super awesome personalized apron!

(However, starting in February we are going to be changing things up a bit and making it even BETTER! So be sure to check that out!)

So what are you waiting for? Come over and join us this month!

This month’s ingredients were chosen by last month”s winners over at Eating Club Vancouver and they were coffee, black peppercorns and honey, ingredients that had most of us stumped for a while…do we go sweet or savory, or what??? But the result were delicious entries. So be sure to check them all out on the forum! Although all the entries were at the highest standard, there can be only one winner.

The Winner of this Month’s Joust is Billy from atablefortwo with his Latana.

This dessert not only sounds delicious, but looks absolutely stunning. A sure winner. When this entry came up on the forum, some people even conceded, so there is no doubt that this was a show stopper! Congrats!

Second Place goes to Maybelle’s Mom over at Feeding Maybelle with Coffee Blackpepper and Honey Duck Bacon!

Wow does that look good or what?

Third Place goes to Rachel, The Crispy Cook, with her Mocha Pepper Sandwich Cookies!

Love her take on a spiced holiday cookie!

They were all great entries, so please check out all the other great entries this month, please click here

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This month we have a very special Joust! My good friend Cynthia, from Tastes Like Home is coming out with a cookbook within days called My Caribbean Cookbook, Tastes Like Home.

She has been kind enough to offer a free copy for the winner of a RFJ Contest. We decided that the Joust should focus on Caribbean cuisine and ingredients, and the winner will get her awesome cookbook. How cool is that?????

So what this means is that for the next Joust, Jan 2009, we will be doing a special edition of the RFJ. The winner for December 2008 – the Joust that just ended, will then pick the ingredients for Feb 2009. So basically we are just skipping a month and doing the Caribbean Joust in January. So I really hope that everyone will join us for this awesome oppurtunity to win Cynthia’s awesome cookbook!

The Ingredients for this special edition Joust are: Coconut (or Coconut Milk), Rice and Bananas
So please come over to the forum and post your entries here, for a chance to win My Caribbean Cookbook, Tastes Like Home!!!!

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Also, please be advised we have an awesome Foodie Blogroll Giveaway going on right now with The Ginger People who will be giving away an awesome gift basket to the winner of a holiday cookie contest going on! So be sure to check that out too!

Welcome to another rendition of The Finest Foodies Friday!

As always here is what the FFF is all about. Finest Foodies Friday! FFF is a weekly Friday post featuring favorites from The Foodie Blogroll! We do this so we can share in the rich diversity of what The Foodie Blogroll has to offer by featuring some of our favorites and yours!
What is the Foodie Blogroll? It is the first and fastest growing free membership blogroll for food bloggers and has become a wonderful community (just over 2500 strong) to share ideas about all things food related.

The only requirement to be featured here on FFF is to be a member of The Foodie Blogroll and be displaying The Foodie Blogroll widget on your blog. If you are not yet a member, but you have a food blog and would like to join us, please click here!

If you have a favorite foodblog on The Foodie Blogroll, that you would like to be featured here on FFF, please join us over on The Leftover Queen/Foodie Blogroll Forum, and post your favorite Foodie Blogroll foodblogs here.

Food Frolic, Wine and Adventure
This blog is authored by Snow White and Golden Piglet who are lovers of Italy, The Old World and living a pleasurable life. I must admit that I agree with those sentiments and therefore really enjoy the musings, stories and recipes on this blog. If you are looking for an escape from your regular routine, check this one out!

Cheese Boutique
It is no secret that I love cheese and so I am always happy to come across a blog that is entirely devoted to this wonderful food item. But this is not only the title of the blog, but also of an actual cheese boutique. Oh how I wish I lived in Ontario….Today also seems to be the day to feature people with fantastic food aliases – the authors of this blog are The Big Cheese and O-reagano. But do not fear if you are not a huge lover of cheese, there are other foods that get featured on this blog, including other delicious foods in their shop. So I would suggest checking it out nevertheless. Me, I’m just going to go there to drool

Pineapple Bread
This is another drool-worthy blog. Authored by Jeanne, and primarily featuring baked goods, this blog also draws a lot from Jeanne’s Taiwanese-American background. So you will find both Western and Eastern styles of cooking here, and really tantalizing photos. Pineapple Bread actually refers to a type of bread found in parts of Asia that has a crisscross pattern, making it look like a pineapple, although it does not contain the fruit itself. I love when I learn a new foodie fact!

One Food Guy
I love the tagline of this blog: “eat first. take names later”. A good food philosophy!
The other thing that is great about this blog is Food Guy’s Tuesday’s Tasting where he features store bought foods (most of what I can see is from Trader Joe’s – YUM) and critiques them. This is very helpful if you aren’t sure whether to try something or not. There are also restaurant reviews and great recipes, so be sure to check it out!

La Cocina De Nathan
If you love Latin food, this is a great to check out delicious recipes. Nathan’s Comida is a mix of foods that showcase his Spanish, Mexican and Cuban heritage – which to me just spells good eats! All his recipes use fresh and delicious ingredients and just look divine. So if you are looking for something different and delicious, please check out Nathan’s blog!

That’s it for this week! I hope you enjoyed this week’s FFF. Remember, if you would like to see a blog featured here, who is part of the FBR please visit the forum and nominate them. I NEED NOMINATIONS!!!!!!

Also we all love to know how people came to find our blogs, so please visit all of our featured bloggers today and don’t forget to tell them that you found them via Finest Foodies Friday!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, and for those of you who didn’t celebrate, I hope you still had lots of good food. I am sorry I am just getting around to my Thanksgiving Day post, I can see that the blogosphere is already into the Winter Holiday mode. But between traveling and the terrible cold I picked up, I have not been up to my regular blogging schedule. But I think now things should get back to normal soon.

Thanksgiving really is a food lover’s holiday which is why it is one of my favorite holidays. I also love the sentiment behind it, it is not a day to give out lots of presents, and I feel that it is the least “Hallmark-y” of the holidays. It is essentially a day to give thanks for the many blessings in one’s life and to spend good times and good food with family and friends. Something many of us need to do every so often, especially this year. Despite the negativity that surrounds the invention of this American holiday (I’ll skip the whole Pilgrim and Indian Story), I like what it has come to represent for my family.

We spent Thanksgiving with my Dad and Stepmom this year in Annapolis, MD at their home and it was truly awesome. We had about 12 of us there, including two adorable little girls, and of course it was all about the holiday favorites – Turkey (both roasted and smoked), stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, gravy and a Baltimore, MD traditional dish, sauerkraut and fresh kielbasa. This was certainly a departure from the Thanksgiving meals of my childhood which consisted of all of the above (minus the kraut and kielbasa) plus Italian wedding soup, Ravioli and my Nana’s famous sausage stuffing. But the meal was great and it was really nice to spend time getting to know my stepmom’s family. There was also a cocktail hour which included my dad’s bloody mary’s or gin and tonics served with MD crab dip, a cheese plate and a sweet and spicy dip over cream cheese served with crackers. Pretty good spread.

So on Thanksgiving, I didn’t do too much cooking, just helped wherever help was needed. BUT, the next day was my big day. My dad and stepmom arranged for 10 of their friends (including my biggest fan, their longtime friend, Gloria – in the above photo) to come over and enjoy a Leftover Queen, Leftover Thanksgiving Dinner.

I thought this was a fantastic idea and so Friday morning, after taking stock of the leftovers from the night before and what was in their kitchen pantry and fridge, I set to work on a menu. We ended up having a Southwest inspired salad with smoked turkey and honey-lime dressing, potato croquettes with marinara sauce, mini turkey sandwiches with turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing and gravy, as well as sauteed green beans with almonds and shallots. There was also leftover kraut and kielbasa and plain ‘ol roasted turkey as well. With the obligatory pumpkin pie for dessert!

We all had a great time and I even learned another term for Leftovers, from Gloria, “Mustgoes”. She said she learned it from a friend of hers and usually when she asks people if they have ever had “mustgoes” they don’t know what she is talking about!

At the end of the night we had an impromptu Scotch tasting. Roberto and I are both big fans of single malts and we brought a bottle for my dad. But it turns out he prefers bourbon. However, my stepmom who is a wine distributor also carries a few selective single malts and there were a few people there who also enjoy single malts, so we had a good time talking about the various types and distilleries and trying a few varieties.

So thanks Dad and Kayzie for coming up with this great day after Thanksgiving celebration. It was a lot of fun and I think is a great tradition!

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