The Royal Foodie Joust is an awesome and fun 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 every 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 in another round!

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 three 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 Best Overall Entry winner. The Best Overall 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 Royal Foodie Joust Apron! There are also prizes for the winners of the other two categories: Best Photo and Most Unique Interpretation

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

If you would like to participate in this month’s Joust, be sure to submit your entry by 12 NOON, Eastern Standard USA time on the First of the following Month (July 1, 2009)!

If you have an idea you would like to share about how to make the Joust a better community event, please join us in discussing it here

Now onto the winners of this month’s event. The ingredients for this month were chosen by last month’s Best Overall winner, my good friend Nuria from Spanish Recipes! The ingredients she chose were Rice, Tomato and Bacon. These ingredients are simple yet delicious with so many ways to be creative. Which is exactly what the entries were!

But there can be only one Best Overall Winner and this time it was LK from Healthy Delicious with her Spicy Gumbo with Andouille and Bacon Wrapped Shrimp.

Just look at how delicious this dish is. She used locally produced sausages to make her favorite soup. Please go check out her blog post to learn the tricks to making a good roux. Congrats LK, you made a dish that appeals to everyone!

Our next winner is Best Photo. This is awarded this month to my good blogging friend Ben of What’s Cooking? He made a really picture perfect dish – Joust Rice Cakes .

He started by making a cup of turkey bacon and filled them with a mixture of Mexican rice, beans and cheese. Talk about yum. Ben has really been getting into food photography and it really paid off in this competition! Congrats Ben!

Our third category is Most Unique Interpretation of the ingredients. This is one of my favorite categories, and since we made it a category, I have seen the creativity of Joust entries just skyrocket. People are playing with their entries a lot more, and I am really enjoying the results. This month’s winner is Raquel from Cafe Nilson with her Tomato and Bacon Pizza with a Rice Crust

We love pizza in this house, and I am trying to find more ways to eat more rice and other grains besides wheat, so I am sure to try this one!

Thanks again to all the participants for another great Joust!

If you would like to see all the entries please check them out here

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Now for this month’s ingredients. LK has chosen:

Strawberries

Basil

Whole Grains

Again, really simple and accessible ingredients for everyone – yet a flavor combination that is unique and interesting! I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with!

Please check out the rules of Joust participation here

AND

Please post your entries here

Let The Games Begin!

As many of you who follow me on Twitter or Facebook know, last week I had my latest and greatest food challenge to date! I made a 50 person wedding cake for some good friends of ours (after just moving to our new place 4 days earlier!). I was inspired to make the cake because A) it was for friends and B) it was for a very casual reception. Had I been asked to do this by strangers, or for a typical reception, I likely would not have been so bold, as I am not really known for baking, and also because I don’t have any cake decorating skills (or tools) to speak of. I would have NEVER done this a year ago, because prior to then, I never baked. So I just want to shout out to all my Daring Baker buddies to thank them for all the support over the last year and a half and helping me to become more confident in baking! I will never forget the good times we had!

The reception was at a large open air pavilion on the beach, here in Saint Augustine. A few weeks before the reception Roberto and I were out to dinner with the Bride and Groom, Lela and Bubba, and I asked them where they were registered for gifts. They said that they weren’t and all they really wanted as gifts was food for the reception. They were planning a simple BBQ affair with all the trimmings. I asked about a cake – and they didn’t have one. So I asked if they would like me to make the cake as our gift to them. I offered because I really felt that they should have a cake, and be able to do the cake cutting ceremony together – one of the highlights of every wedding reception. They happily accepted and we decided on a carrot cake, as it is both of their favorite.

I had some doubt after the fact, but I decided I was going to focus on making a tasty cake, even if it didn’t end up looking too pretty. That took the pressure off. I had never made a big cake and I had never made a carrot cake before. But I was doing this for good friends, so I stayed focused on that and it was just going to be one of those labor of love deals.

The first thing I did was ask around on Twitter to see of any of my baking guru buddies had any great ideas for ways to do this, and for great carrot cake recipes. They had to be tried and true. I got a lot of suggestions for baking cupcakes. But after thinking about it, I figured that would probably take me a lot longer. I wanted to work with the cake pans I already had (and I only have one cupcake tray) and avoid having to buy anything. So I decided to do a large 13×9 rectangle, a 9” square and a 9” round and then stack them. I decided on a recipe that my friend Toontz from Okara Mountain sent me from one of her recipe books (can’t remember which…). I chose it because it was simple and straightforward and came highly recommended. I did make an addition of raisins and crystallized ginger to the recipe. I also decreased the amount of oil and added water to thin the batter. If I had applesauce on hand, I would have used that instead.

The cake ended up being delicious and a huge success! It was nice and moist, with lots of goodies baked in. I added a bit of ice wine to the cream cheese frosting, which added a nice dimension of flavor – and making it a bit more sophisticated and wedding-y tasting – it also made the color of the icing almost iridescent. I decorated the cake with red Gerber daisies, which were part of their invitation design and some Ginger Sweeties from The Ginger People (I also added some ground up to the cake batter). Those were a HUGE hit. The Bride sure loved those ginger hearts! I noticed on The Ginger People website, they are now $4 a jar! So if you like ginger, you should pick some up!

I got a lot of compliments, and the Bride and Groom were very pleased. I was really happy with the way everything turned out, right down to the decorations – which was the part I was most worried about. But I took the clues from their invitations, and did decorations based on the colors and design. When in doubt use flowers! They are beautiful, don’t require any skill on your part, and are always classy! I also made them two small cupcakes to enjoy on their one year anniversary. CONGRATULATIONS, Lela and Bubs!

Carrot Cake (for one 13×9 inch pan – for the 3-tiered cake for 50 people I tripled the recipe)

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups pure cane sugar

2 cups organic AP flour (I used King Arthur)

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup nuts (I used mixed), chopped

2 cups shredded carrots

1 cup baking coconut

½ cup of dark raisins

¼ cup crystallized ginger, ground (I used Ginger Sweeties from The Ginger People)

3 organic eggs, beaten

1 (7-ounce) can crushed pineapple and juice

¼ cup of grapeseed oil (or veg oil)

1/4-1 cup of water (as needed to thin the batter)

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Frosting:

8 oz. Cream cheese (I used a lowfat -and it was FINE)

4 cups organic powdered sugar

¼ cup organic butter

dash of salt

2 TBS ice wine – marsala would work good too

METHOD:

Mix sugar, flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, nuts, carrots, coconut, raisins and ginger in a large bowl. Stir in eggs, pineapple AND juice, oil, vanilla and water. Pour mixture into a lightly greased 13×9 inch pan. Bake at 350 F for 35-45 minutes. Mix together frosting ingredients and spread over cooled cake. Frosting can be made ahead. Additionally, if anyone is interested in The Ginger People products, here is some contact info. Nicole is awesome and would be more than glad to help you with your ginger needs!

Nicole DeCarli
Marketing Coordinator
ndecarli@gingerpeople.com
(800) 551-5284 x225  fax (831) 582-2495

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 to share ideas about all things food related. With a membership of OVER 4000 food blogs, I am sure you can find much inspiration and new friends!

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.

The Flavors of Abruzzo

This blog is written by a US expat living in the Abruzzo region of Italy. I always really love reading expat blogs, they give such an interesting perspective on the area of the world where they live. I always love finding out how they ended up there, out of all the places in the world, and how they adjust to the point where their new country becomes “home”. Maybe that is because I am married to my own expat, or because I have also lived in other countries (I consider the Navajo Nation a different country), and therefore can relate. But another reason is I love seeing what they cook up in their kitchens! So if you like Italian food, or like to read about the lives of expats, you should check this one out!

Rico Cafe-Bistro

Have you guys met Rico? If not you should certainly go and pay his blog a visit. Rico is a very friendly blogger who has recently been really reaching out to the food blogging community with kind greetings, and a smile on his face (well I imagine there is a smile on his face, anyway…). His goal is to blog about recipes that are easy to create or bake, nutritious, wholesome, healthy and economical too.

The Last Bite

has a really cool logo, and that spoon of chocolate just lets you know right away that there are a lot of yummy recipes to be had by reading this blog. Another great thing about this blog is when you check out the recipes, they are all good ingredients. This always makes me happy – bloggers that care about where their food comes from – I swear we are starting a movement! This blogger also believes that the care and love you put into your food, are the right ingredients to make the perfect dish. She doesn’t believe eating is all about fueling the body, there is more to it. She says: “Each meal is the opportunity for a food story, or in other words an edible hug”.

Nooschi: A Food Diary

This blog was started as a way for the author to document her food filled adventures. She realized that when she traveled she took almost as many food photos as anything else, and wanted to create a way to remember her journeys with stories. What does Nooschi mean?

Pronounced noo-shee, the name is a true portmanteau, and is combination of both the author and her partner’s cultures: Persian and Chinese. “In Persian, the word for bon appétit is noosh – e – jan, and the word for eating in Chinese is chi. You put the two together, and you get Nooschi!”

Fried Pickles and Ice Cream

This is another expat in Italy blog. This blog is a spin off from her original blog as a way to share recipes with family and friends. She has recently joined many of the blogging worlds monthly challenges as well, and so this is a blog for her to share her experiences there as well. Right now, I am really drooling over her Strawberry Vanilla Cake with Limoncello Frosting. Apparently it is so good, she made it five times in one month!

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!!!!!! I know we all have our favorite blogs that we read everyday, and I would love to know about them. We have a very diverse food community, and I would love to see more of the blogs you love featured. We also have a lot of humanitarians out in the Foodie Blogosphere. If you think there is a food blogger out there that deserves a little recognition for their culinary skills, or what they are doing to help the world through the lens of food, please tell us about them!!! Please post your favorite Foodie Blogroll foodblogs here.

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! They would love to have your feedback.

In my last post, about all the FoodieBlogroll.com giveaways, there was a picture of me on my tiny porch, here in downtown, Saint Augustine. Behind me in the photo you can see my tomato plant creeping up behind me! I love gardening. It has become increasingly important to me to be more and more conscious of where my food comes from. Therefore, I am working my way towards producing as much of the food we eat as possible. Right now, I am not even in the baby stages. For one, I have a very small porch, which is the only place for me to grow any food, and I certainly do not have the land to raise any farm animals, which is certainly on my to do list for the future. One day I plan to have a lot of land, and when I do, I am looking very much forward to starting my own kitchen garden full of vegetables, culinary and medicinal herbs and flowers and raising livestock. However until that day comes, I have started my own small, but fully functional container garden on my tiny little porch. Trust me, if you put your mind to it, you can really grow a lot of stuff!

We started with tomatoes, as I have heard a lot of successful stories about growing them in containers. Once we had success with a pot of tomatoes, we bought herbs – basil, oregano, mint, lemon balm, chives and oregano.

Last year I did not fare very well in the herb growing department, even though I had a lot of success with herbs when I lived in the Northeast. So we decided to try again this year. Instead of using seeds, we started with small plants. We also got another tomato plant plus a bell pepper and a banana pepper plant…and a few strawberry plants that we are growing in a hanging basket.

Once those were doing well, we added a Celestial (white) fig tree

and a blueberry bush

We also have several non- edible plants, including a small pine tree that we used last year to celebrate the winter holidays, and plan to use the same tree for many years to come.

Our local garden center was very helpful in helping us select plants for our limited space and giving us growing tips. Basically anything can be grown in a container as long as you have good soil, sunshine and some kind of fertilizer. As the plants grow, they can be transferred to larger containers. Fruit trees are a good option as they take longer to get bigger, and therefore can stay in pots for longer periods of time. I imagine it would be the same with nut trees.

We have just moved (this past weekend) to a larger house, out of downtown, and on the island side of Saint Augustine. Our new place has a very large screened in porch. Once we are more settled in here, I am looking forward to expanding our container garden to include a few varieties of citrus trees and possibly some more vegetables like lettuces and greens. I decided that although I will likely have flowers and non-edible plants too, that growing things we can eat will give me a lot more joy, and may possibly grow me enough food to start another new hobby I have been wanting to try for a long time – canning! I know that I can’t have my farmhouse with a true garden yet, but in the meantime, I can get as close to that as possible given my living situation. I think it is also a good exercise in becoming familiar with several varieties of plants so that when we do have a farm, we are comfortable with some plantings already! That will give us a nice head start!

Also, speaking of canning and being more aware of where your food, I totally want to win this from Nourished Kitchen. It is a pickle, sauerkraut and kimchi maker. I really love fermented foods, but I find the only good quality ones at the supermarket are so so expensive. So when I get these products, I don’t get to eat as much as I would like, because they are like precious gems. I would love the convenience of being able to make these things at home, and it totally fits in with my goal of making and producing more of my food at home! If this is something that interests you, you have one more day to enter!!!!

We have another great month of giveaways on Foodieblogroll.com This month we are featuring loads of Mediterranean flavors from Cedar’s, Taste Italia Magazine giveaways and a fantastic cookbook from one of our very own Foodie Blogrollers – Stir, Laugh, Repeat!
This is a good month, indeed.

Cedar’s Mediterranean Foods Giveaway in June!

LOOK AT ALL THIS STUFF! IT COULD BE YOURS! (…well not this exact stuff, but a box just like it!)

We have all heard the phrases about traveling with your taste buds, or your palate. You will hear food bloggers say again and again that by eating the cuisine of a culture that is different from the one you are used to, you can use food as a window into that other culture. Some bloggers have taken that idea and really run with it. But I think at the heart of blogging is always the desire to learn about other cultures, or to share a bit about our own.

Well the good folks at Cedar’s Mediterranean Foods, Inc. believes this as well, and so for the month of June, in conjunction with FoodieBlogroll.com they are giving away “Travel to the Mediterranean with Your Tastebuds” goodie boxes complete with new Tzatziki flavors, new feta spreads, new Mediterranean salads, and even a Cedar’s beach towel (in the photo) and T-shirt (I am wearing it in the photo)!

Cedar’s objective is to teach consumers more about The Mediterranean Diet, one of the healthiest ways to eat in the world. Their brand give us, as foodies, so many easy and convenient options that we can just pick up at the grocery store. Options that are made up of healthy ingredients that we can feel good about putting in our bodies. Options that are perfect for packing in a picnic basket to enjoy this summer, at the beach, the park, or any other place you like to relax with family and friends.

We had a really successful giveaway with Cedar’s during the month of February and it was so successful , Cedar’s asked us to do it again during the month of June! So of course we happily obliged.

All you have to do to be eligible to win this GINORMOUS box of goodies is be a member of The Foodie Blogroll, and live in the USA (these items are perishable). For more details on the contest and giveaways, please check out The Foodie Blogroll Contests and Giveaways Page.

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Taste Italia Magazine

Taste Italia is the wonderful magazine completely dedicated to Italian food and drink. Every issue is packed with around 50 authentic and seasonal Italian recipes to give you fresh inspiration in the kitchen. Every issue of Taste Italia is packed with Italian recipes and features on Italian produce and producers. It also features reviews of wine and restaurants, and offers plenty of practical advice on how to prepare stunning, authentic dishes every time. Published on the first Thursday of every month it reaches a dedicated audience in the UK, the USA and beyond. Whether you’re an expert cook who would like to explore the world of Italian food in detail or if you simply want to learn a few new dishes to impress your family and friends, there’s something in Taste Italia for every reader.

We’ve also arranged an exclusive deal with the good people at Taste Italia. Besides offering 4 free subscriptions to one lucky winner each week of June, they will also give ANY Foodie Blogroll member a 33% saving on subscriptions!!!! So you can sign up for less than £2.50 an issue and start receiving great Italian recipe ideas every month, direct to your door.

UK – 12 issues for £29.75 – SAVE £14.65
Europe – 12 issues for £39.95 – SAVE £16.45
Rest of World inc USA – 12 issues for £49.95 – SAVE £22.45

Subscribe now!

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Last but certainly not least, is one of our very own Foodie Blogrollers who is giving away her fabulous cookbook that is based on her blog Stir, Laugh, Repeat .

We will be giving away 4 copies of Martha’s cookbook over the month of June (one per week). The recipes in in her book Stir, Laugh, Repeat have all been tested by 24 trusty “Food Testers” – how lucky are they??? As they tried a new recipe, they would rate each dish on a 1-10 scale, and only those dishes scoring at least an 8 made it into the book. Her blog is a “holding place” for all the recipes in her 2nd book Stir, Laugh, Repeat… Again.