IF YOU LIKE FOOD BLOGS, THIS IS THE PLACE TO BE EVERY FRIDAY!

As always here is what the FFF is all about. Finest Foodies Friday 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 5,200 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.

Other People’s Food

I wanted to feature this blog today, because Katie has been around the blogosphere for as long as I have. She is just coming out of a one year hiatus, and has a new baby. So for those of you who haven’t been to Katie’s blog, you should check it out. As for those of your who know Katie, let’s welcome her back! This is what Katie B. has to say about the inspiration behind her blog: “Honestly, I would sooner open a can of soup for dinner than try to make something without a recipe. Give me some directions and I can feed you something fun and fresh and yummy… nothing to follow, no carefully measured ingredients… and you get soup. Just how it is. What this means, is that I make meals pulled from friends, family, cookbooks, recipe sites, other food blogs… other people’s food.” There are some really great recipes for just about everything you could crave.

Oh Kitchen, What Won’t You Do?

Another blogger I want to welcome back is my buddy Georgia, who just got married recently! This blog is authored by Georgia, and Randi, two girls, who much like the rest of us, are obsessed with food! These girls are part of the Daring Kitchen, and regularly participate in other online Foodie Events. Hopefully they will make an appearance soon on the Jousting fields! Looking at the attire from Georgia’s wedding, I think it is very appropriate (by the way, Georgia, I LOVE IT!!! and Congrats!)!

What Do I Want to Cook Today?

This lovely blog is written by Jan who lives in England. She and I like to talk a lot via facebook about food and the differences we have in weather! Her blog is always full of soul-warming, delicious fare. She has this to say about food: “I don’t believe that you should be too concerned with exact measurements in cooking. Within reason, if you like something put more in, if you don’t put in either less, or something else in it’s place! It will nearly always turn out fine. I love cooking and eating especially! I like almost anything – from good old English Roast Beef to Greek, Turkish, Indian, Chinese, Thai and Moroccan, Mexican……..most things actually!” As you can see she enjoys many culinary influences, and I am sure that you will enjoy her blog!

Adventures of Kitchen Girl

Another Twitter buddy of mine is Jo from Adventures of Kitchen Girl. Jo is a thirty-something Mother of 3 who loves to cook and take pictures of food. She also enjoys doing product reviews, wherehonest opinions are always given… good, bad or just so so. Of course she has a lot of family friendly meal ideas on her blog, but they are perfect for everyone!

Canela and Comina

This blog is written by Gretchen, who loves to write about the flavors, markets and cuisine of Peru. She lived in Peru for 6 years as a missionary. She says: “My experiences here in Peru have taken me to 19 of the 24 departments, including the heights of the Andes mountains and the depths of the jungle. I love the variety of cultures within Peru and I find that variety so often represented in the foods of the different regions…I hope to take you on an adventure through Peru, showing you the many delicious foods found here as well as all the creative things you can do with them.”

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.

I love the fall, it is certainly, without a doubt, my favorite season. So when Natasha, from 5 Star Foodie , winner of last month’s Joust, sent me her choice of ingredients for this month I was thrilled!

Apple, Maple and Cayenne are three ingredients that really exemplify fall fare. It seems that the Jousters felt the same way, because we had 17 awesome entries this month! Everything from soup, to seafood and salsa to caramel apples! Be sure to check out all the recipes and tantalizing photos here on the Foodie Blogroll forum!

We welcomed several new Jousters this month, who will hopefully become regulars, and welcomed many of our seasoned Jousters back, after a much deserved summer break! I hope this will encourage some of you to join us this month too! Things are always exciting, and changing in the Jousting fields! We have a fantastic group of ingredients this month too. I will announce them at the end of the post!

About the Joust:

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 and more creative, as Jousters try to outdo each other! 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 only 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 (Nov. 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.

Although there were so many awesome entries this time around, there can only be one winner in each category, and each month making that call gets harder! Onto those winning entries now!

This month’s Best Overall winner is Kat from A Good Appetite. Her winning entry is Brie Stuffed Maple Burger with Spicy Apple Bacon Compote .

Her recipe was inspired by a local restaurant, Blue Door that does some really interesting takes on the classic Minneapolis Juicy Lucy. Their most recent version stuffed with brie & topped with apple compote was only available for one day. Kat and Matt, couldn’t make it there that day so they decided to put their our own spin on it at home. “In our version the beef is flavored with a little maple syrup & then stuffed with brie. The apple compote is spiced up with cayenne, sweetened with maple syrup plus given a little saltiness with some bacon. Put it all together & you really have an amazing flavor combination. The apples go surprisingly well with the beef.”

I could certainly sink my teeth into this amazing burger! Congrats Kat for taking the win this month!

As food bloggers (and food appreciators) we all know that pictures speak a thousand words and this month’s Best photo winner goes to Peter, aka Protos Souvlaki for the Soul with Spicy Carrot and Apple Cakes with Maple Buttercream Frosting

For his Joust entry Peter made us some mini carrot cakes. He added the cayenne pepper to the “spice mix” which also included nutmeg, cinnamon and ground cloves. He added the maple syrup to a buttercream frosting that went on top. True to his Greek roots, he also used olive oil, Greek yoghurt and a combination of wholemeal flours and almond meal in his recipe. I really love the look of these cute little cakes!

The Winner for Most Unique Interpretation of the Ingredients is awarded to Joan of FOODalogue with her 3 Alarm Fruit Pizzette

This pizzette is an amazing combination of flavors! Joan says she always has bits of recipes and flavor combinations swirling around in her head that helps her to create her super flavorful dishes on her blog. This is what she says about her Joust creation:“It may make you sweat a bit, but the layers of flavors will totally entice. You’ve got heat from the cayenne pepper and jalapeño mustard; sweet from the maple syrup and apples; salt and gooeyness from the cheese; freshness from the cilantro, scallions, lime zest and starfruit; and crunch from the pumpkin seeds and toasted flatbread.” Unique and delicious indeed!

Thank you so much to our winners, all the participants and everyone who voted! Remember, even if you don’t enter the Joust you can still vote for your favorite entry on The Foodie Blogroll Forum!

*******************************************************************************************

This month, here in North America, we celebrate Halloween! So for this month’s Joust, Kat has decided to use the colors of Orange and Black to inspire you for this month’s Joust!

Here are your ingredients:

Orange – Pumpkin (or anything other orange flesh squash, i.e. butternut, acorn, kabocha)
Black – Stout, Porter or other dark colored Beer (if you don’t want to use alcohol, you can substitute in cola)
Sugar

Please post your entries here!

Let the games begin!!!

IF YOU LIKE FOOD BLOGS, THIS IS THE PLACE TO BE EVERY FRIDAY!

As always here is what the FFF is all about. Finest Foodies Friday 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 5,200 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.

Healthy. Delicious

LK has been cooking full, balanced meals for her family since she was 10 years old. After spending the first 10 years of her life “helping” her mom in the kitchen, her mom decided to give her the wheel once a week. The recipes on her blog feature the kinds of food, that she eats to maintain her health – limiting processed food and refined carbs, eating lots of fresh, in-season fruits and vegetables, whole grains as well as all natural and organic when it’s reasonable and makes sense. Her recipes are divided into 40 minutes or less, and “weekend meals” – which are recipes that take over 40 minutes. Enjoy!

Sense and Serendipity

This blog is about food, cooking, health and nutrition and anything between wellness and well-being. The goal is to awaken society to a new and fresh interest in nutrition in its simple, natural and holistic approach. The photos are colorful and beautiful, and many interesting ingredients are featured.

Guilty Kitchen

Elizabeth started her career in a professional kitchen at the age of 15, washing dishes. She quickly moved on to prep cook and then on to salads and desserts. She is now a stay at home mom. In order to keep her sanity she cooks, gardens, takes photos, and plays with her child. This blog shares those experiences with you. As a healthy role model for her child, she tries to eat healthy, but sometimes the desire for butter, cream and sugar gets the best of her, hence the name of the blog.

From Ketchup to Chutney

This blogger never tasted mac n’cheese or chicken nuggets until she was in college. Her mom was a passionate and adventurous cook who wanted to expose her daughter from a young age to a variety of ingredients. Hot dogs were served in whole wheat pita pockets with mango chutney, while her daughter wanted to be like the other kids and have ketchup and a white bun. This historical event is the inspiration of the blog’s name! Now that she is older, she has begun to appreciate gourmet foods again!

Spicie Foodie

This blog is written by a Mexican expat who has lived all over the world, learning the tastes and cuisines of the various countries once called home. Currently living in Europe where the more exotic products aren’t always available, this blogger has to learned to work with what they have resulting in learning to make many things from scratch. This blog shares both their traditional recipes and the one’s using substitute local ingredients.

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.

Just a quick announcement that this week’s Stuffed Nation Giveaway winner is Melanie from Cake Walk.

Please check out her awesome video presentation she did about obesity.

If you have not read about the giveaway yet, please see this post!

It is a very important topic that food bloggers should be weighing in on! I am really hoping for some more entries over the next 2 months that we are doing this giveaway! For those of you who left comments on my post about the giveaway, I do hope that some of you decide to expand upon those comments and write a blog post about it! I would love to hear more of your ideas and thoughts, and I would love for more people to be eligible to win!

Now onto Finest Foodies Friday.

IF YOU LIKE FOOD BLOGS, THIS IS THE PLACE TO BE EVERY FRIDAY!

As always here is what the FFF is all about. Finest Foodies Friday 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 5,200 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 Veggie Girl

Another blog I cannot believe took me this long to feature! Veggie Girl’s blog is Gluten-free. Soy-free. High-raw. Dairy-free. Egg-free, and more. She eats in a way that has helped her manage her Crohn’s disease as well as many food allergies. But don’t let that stop you. Even if you have no food issues, but just enjoy interesting and tasty recipes made in ways that you haven’t thought of before, this is an excellent blog.

The Kitchen Witch

The Kitchen Witch is a blog written by a former teacher, writer, personal chef and mother of 3. She “lives and struggle to maintain her sanity in the Rocky Mountains.” When she started her blog, she had a list of 15 items that her child would eat. This list is what began her journey into food blogging. She started The Family Dinner Rehab. For a year, she and her daughter will cook something together at least once a week. Her daughter will try it, and TKW will report back to you. It is full of humorous blog posts, and of good eats.

Mitzi Dulan: America’s Nutrition Expert

This blog is written by Mitzi Dulan. She is an author, registered dietitian, foodie, and mom. Her passion is to help other people get healthy, lose weight and perform their best. She also loves good food! Her philosophy is to eat clean, real foods and allow indulgences for your favorites. She believes food should be fun, fresh and flavorful! Mitzi is currently the nutritionist for the Kansas City Chiefs Football Team and the Kansas City Royals Baseball Team! We are lucky to have her expertise on The Foodie Blogroll!

Jeroxie: Addictive and Consuming

This blog is written by a food obsessed, foodie. Blogging about food is a form of expression and gives focus to this blogger. It allows them to have a better depth of understanding between food and culture. Born in Singapore, but living in Melbourne for the past 10 years, the blog documents travels, opinions and the life of it’s author, Jeroxie.

Delightfully Delicious

This is a blog about all the simple and enjoyable things in life. There are several other blogs attached to this one on decorating, and crafty adventures, but this one is all about the food. All of the recipes have very few and easy to find ingredients. This is a great blog for simplifying your life!

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.

Just a quick announcement that this week’s Stuffed Nation Giveaway winner is Toni From Daily Bread Journal.

If you have not read about the giveaway yet, please see this post!

It is a very important topic that food bloggers should be weighing in on! I am really hoping for some more entries over the next 2 months that we are doing this giveaway! For those of you who left comments on my post about the giveaway, I do hope that some of you decide to expand upon those comments and write a blog post about it! I would love to hear more of your ideas and thoughts, and I would love for more people to be eligible to win!

Now onto Finest Foodies Friday.

IF YOU LIKE FOOD BLOGS, THIS IS THE PLACE TO BE EVERY FRIDAY!

As always here is what the FFF is all about. Finest Foodies Friday 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 5,000 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.

Just Making Noise

Mare’s blog is one of my new favorites. We both share a passion for cooking nourishing meals for our families and like me she is often referring to the Nourishing Traditions cookbook. Mare has been cooking this way for her family longer than I have, and she has been very helpful with answering some questions for me recently. She lives with her husband Jon and their two beautiful daughters in Costa Rica. She says “My interest began innocently with High Fructose Corn Syrup and Hydrogenated Oils, then it snowballed into an avalanche of many other things. Like many mothers, I desired the best for my growing babies and that started the hard, long process of re-learning what a nourishing, healthy lifestyle really looks like. I was very “healthy” according to the American standards, but I had to re-define what the term “healthy” really meant.” I  and many of you, dear readers, I am sure,  can relate to this sentiment. For delicious and healthy treats, please check out Mare’s blog.

Going With My Gut

This blog is written by Wen. She and her partner Babs on on a year long sabbatical and honeymoon seeing and eating the world. They are learning everything they can about seasonal, traditional and organic eating and agriculture along the way. They are doing this by volunteering on organic farms, signing up for cooking classes, and harassing their relatives and relatives of our friends to impart their knowledge of traditional foods! Left to her own devices Wen can be found pointing her camera too close to her food, dawdling at farmers markets, and terrorizing crustaceans everywhere. Go join them on their journey!

Healthy Tasty Chow

This blog is written by Ann, who had to change the way she cooked to accommodate her husbands various food allergies. Along with that, she has a major sweet tooth and loves to bake. But what she enjoys most is experimenting with baking and trying to make healthier versions (than the original) of her favorite treats! She is of Italian and German decent, but she says she has always been loyal to the Italian side, because of the food! When it comes to Italian foods, she makes no exceptions – she loves it all! I am really looking forward to trying out her Baked Hot Wing Sauce Garbanzo Beans!

Nom!Nom!Nom! Blog

This blog is written by Kris who is a “vegan baking fool” living in Portland, Oregon. Like many food bloggers she grew up in the kitchen. Her foodie role models were her great-grandmother and her aunt. Her family life revolved around someone puttering in the kitchen while everyone else sat around chatting, laughing and sampling the cook’s inventions. That is why creating “mind-blowing” vegan food has been so important to her! She even has her own cookbook, 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes! So go check it out!

Look Who’s Cooking Too

The author says that she is an Open Book, and her food blog is a way for her to keep record of her trials and tribulations in the kitchen. A former kitchen “disaster” she shares on her blog the recipes that turned out alright! She always comes back to her blog to remind her that she is a decent cook, when things don’t turn out so well. In my opinion, it looks like she is having very few of those days! One of those classic examples of how playing in the kitchen can really expand your kitchen skills, and allow you to have fun while doing it!

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.

Just a quick announcement that this week’s Stuffed Nation Giveaway winner is Eleanor from Make Friends with Food.

If you have not read about the giveaway yet, please see this post!

It is a very important topic that food bloggers should be weighing in on! I am really hoping for some more entries over the next 2 months! For those of you who left comments on my post about the giveaway, I do hope that some of you decide to expand upon those comments and write a blog post about it! I would love to hear more of your ideas and thoughts, and I would love for more people to be eligible to win!

Now onto Finest Foodies Friday.

IF YOU LIKE FOOD BLOGS, THIS IS THE PLACE TO BE EVERY FRIDAY!

As always here is what the FFF is all about. Finest Foodies Friday 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 5,000 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.

My Colombian Recipes

This blog is written by Erica, and she was inspired by her grandmother to write this blog. She says that she never saw her grandmother use a recipe for cooking, she just used whatever she found in her kitchen! Erica wants to share the food of Colombia (and elsewhere) with you. Her photos are gorgeous, and I love her recipes! I made a modified version of her Coconut Rice Pudding Brulee and it was AWESOME! There are tons of other recipes I would like to try too! I just subscribed to her blog, why don’t you?!

When I’m Bored I Make Soup

This is a most perfect blog to feature this time of year! I really love soup (and ice cream) any time of year and with this blog you will never get bored checking out all the delicious creations! The blog is written by Peter, a dentist in New Zealand! He loves soup, and coins it The Ultimate Food. He says: “Soup is surely the ultimate food. From the poorest of the poor standing in the street beside a soup kitchen to the richest of the rich at a posh dinner party, we can all eat soup”. Check out some of his amazing creations.

Food & Creativity Meet The Web

This blog is written by Justin, who is a student in Singapore that has been blogging about food for 6 years! Six years may not seem like a long time, but in terms of blogging, Justin is one of those food blogging pioneers. In 2007, he decided to take a new perspective on blogging – one that involves doing food reviews. He likes to focus those reviews on restaurants that give you the best food, for the best value. Being a student, and expert of Singaporean food for so many years, he would know! Although I have never been to Singapore, this blog is awesome for learning about all the diverse foods that make up the cuisine of Singapore.

Tuti Foodie

Written by Mara, this blog features all of her her own original creations, although she uses cookbooks and notable blogs as inspiration. She waxes poetic about fall in New England and the idea of Tapas on a recent post that features a delicious end of summer, moving into fall menu of Sauteed Baby Bellos and Feta-Mint-Basil Pesto . Delicious! Go check it out!

Divine Domesticity

Ali has been blogging about all things domestic since 2004 and Divine Domesticity is a mish mash of all the things she finds comforting and domestic – including food and cooking! Hee blog is a tenet that “homemaking can be fun, silly and totally worthwhile”. She admits that although she doesn’t read food labels, she is trying to eat healthier these days. Check out the recipe index of her blog for more info .

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.

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 and more creative, as Jousters try to outdo each other! 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 only 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 (Oct. 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, Raquel from Cafe Nilson with her Spicy Banana Zucchini Balls.

She chose, Papaya (ripe or green), Tarragon and Cheese . Many people struggled with these ingredients, but having a challenge sometimes pushes us out of our comfort zone and allows the creativity to begin to flow! This is pretty much the point of the Joust – a fun time expanding our culinary take on different ingredients in a competitive yet friendly environment where doing something different can be very rewarding!

But there can only be one winner in each category, and each month making that call gets harder! Onto those winning entries now!

Our Best Overall and Best Photo Winner is awarded to Natasha from 5 Star Foodie. Natasha is on an incredible foodie mission to eat at all the Michelin 5 Star restaurants in the United States. Her blog features reviews of those restaurants and also recipes that she has been inspired by her 5 Star experiences to create at home! So this girl knows good food, so it is no surprise that her blog is so popular and her recipes so good! Her winning dish was Tarragon Lobster Cakes with Spicy Papaya Queso Blanco Sauce

They sound absolutely delicious – sweet and spicy, and the photo is mouthwatering!

The Winner for Most Unique Interpretation of the Ingredients is awarded to Dhanggit from Dhanggit’s Kitchen .

Her winning dish was Papaya Brioche with Cheese and Farm Eggs Omelette with French Tarragon Bearnaise Sauce

I was impressed with this combination of flavors. I mean who doesn’t love brioche? Adding papaya to it brings it to a whole other level! Then adding the omelette and tarragon bearnaise really makes this dish something very special and unique!

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. Natasha has set us up with some really beautiful autumn inspired ingredients!

Apples
Cayenne Pepper
Maple Syrup

Now that the foodie blogosphere is coming back from vacations, holidays, and quiet time, I am looking forward to an exciting Joust this month! If you have never participated, now is the time! These are some great ingredients that most people always have on hand, or are readily available! So please come and join us for your chance to win a Royal Foodie Joust Apron or Royal Foodie Joust Mug!

IF YOU LIKE FOOD BLOGS, THIS IS THE PLACE TO BE EVERY FRIDAY!

As always here is what the FFF is all about. Finest Foodies Friday 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 5,000 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.

Former Chef

This blog is written by Kristina, a former chef who is still working in the food industry. She says the first question people ask her when they find out she is not longer working as a chef is “do you miss it?” Which she explains is a hard question. She still loves cooking and sharing that passion with others, but if she really missed those long hours in the kitchen, she’d still be doing it. The goal of her blog is to share with people how easy cooking really is. She also discusses urban gardening and her far flung travels. Enjoy her beautiful photos as well!

Edible/Usable

Kim’s blog was originally started for professional reasons. As a consultant who recommends and designs the best user experiences for online web and mobile applications, she wanted a place to point clients and potential clients to get an idea of what she was thinking about the work she does. This was coupled with her love for cooking, and so she applies her user experience (UX) skills to all things food! I love how food blogs can be a platform for so many things, both professional and personal. As for the food, I am really enjoying her latest posts with all kinds of different salads!

Muse in the Kitchen

This blog is written by Ward and Belle, who have really found a shared passion in all things food. When Ward got the bug to start playing around in the kitchen, Belle was recruited as sous chef and recipe planner. What started as an experiment has become an over year long foray into the art of cooking. Ward who once hated the smell of curry now revels in how spicy he can get his various curry recipes to taste! This couple has certainly found their muse, and it is in the kitchen!

Italy in SF

This blog is the ultimate directory for everything Italian in the San Francisco Bay Area. Here you get the inside scoop on where Italians go to find unique products, food and unique traditions they were accustomed to in Italy. Vanessa is the chief writer of the blog. She grew up in Romagna and moved to the US in 2001. In 2008 she began her won business combining travel and food. Her passion is exploring food as an expression of culture. Maurizio is sommelier, a wine and grappa expert from Piedmont. He is the founder of Alessandria Top Wine, a yearly event that showcases Piedmont wines. He has also written Guida ai Vini d’Italia Slow Food/GamberoRosso, the ultimate guide to Italian wines.

Healthy Cook Recipes

This blog features recipes for healthy eating. The motto goes – if you care about health, just choose the recipes that good for your health! Makes a lot of sense doesn’t it? But it isn’t always that easy. It helps though when you have a blog dedicated to healthy foods. This blog makes it easy, with delicious, flavorful, yet healthy recipes!

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.