It has been a while since our last installment of The Finest Foodies Friday. But now that I am back from all the hub bub and settling in to what qualifies as a “normal” life here in the Leftover Queen household, it is time to get back to our regularly scheduled programs here on The Leftover Queen.

For those of you not familiar with the Finest Foodies Friday, we have it every Friday (Duh!), and it is where we showcase favorite blogs from
The Foodie Blogroll. It is a way to share and discover all the wealth of food information we have at our fingertips with The Foodie Blogroll, the fastest growing blogroll for food bloggers. The only requirement to be featured in an installment of FFF is to be a member of The Foodie Blogroll. If you are not yet a member, but you have a food blog and would like to join, please click here, to join in on the fun.If you have a favorite foodblog on The Foodie Blogroll, that you would like to be featured here, please join us over on The Forum, and post your favorite Foodie Blogroll foodblogs here.
Many weeks we pick from the list, and other weeks we just wing it!

This week I would like to showcase some new and some old favorites of mine.

First some of my old favorites:

Let’s start with Katie from Thyme For Cooking
I always love Katie’s blog because she has a great sense of humor. She lives in the South of France, but has also lived in Spain, and she has some great stories to tell about her various adopted homelands. I always learn something new when I visit Katie’s blog and I always leave with a smile on my face. She also has a tantalizing weekly menu plan, often featuring items from her vast garden, that is sure to give you some great ideas for your week!

Then there is Pixie from You Say Tomato…I Say Tomato
Pixie is a very spunky chica who is also a big fan of food of the Mediterranean. She loves exploring new dishes (lots of time other bloggers’ recipes) and trying them out in her kitchen in the UK. Her family is from Malta and she often shares some delicious Maltese dishes, like her family’s Maltese Pizza where she tells a lovely story about her aunt and a day at the beach, one of my favorite posts.

Next is Courtney from CoCo Cooks
Her blog is so interesting, because you never know what kind of food to expect on any given day - she gets inspired by different ingredients or a dish and then goes into her kitchen and makes something based on that inspiration. You can also see her cooking up new dishes based on what she gets from her weekly vegetable box, like those yummy looking Mashed Turnips with Feta! Did someone say Feta???

Looking for great Lebanese food? I always am. If you are too, then you’ve got to check out Mag’s Blog Hommus & Tabbouli.
All of her dishes are totally authentic and she takes the mystery out of all your favorites like falafel, hummus and stuffed grape leaves. I made the Stuffed Grape Leaves from her blog and they were amazing! I could eat everything on her blog, everyday. This is some of the best food in the world!

Now for the two newbies. Like I’ve said in the past, I get tons of new requests to join The Foodie Blogroll everyday, and I have the pleasure of checking them all out. I love this job because I get to see all the great new blogs and get inspired all over again!

A few weeks before my big break, Aaron from Xocoatl Express joined The Foodie Blogroll and I fell in love with his blog right away. Aaron is chocolate obsessed and enjoys making and eating chocolate, like these delicious truffles that he created for The Royal Foodie Joust. For me, I have always described myself as a “vanilla girl” because most of the chocolate that is readily available is honestly crap and not really chocolate at all. Aaron gets this, and his blog is all about real chocolate and how to pair it with the right wines…and cheese! What’s not to love in that equation? There are also non-chocolate related recipes as well.

Last but not least is the lovely Kari from Anticiplate.
Kari is a ballerina who has a love for cooking gourmet foods. She finds many similarities between dancing and cooking from artistry, to technical aspects to plating and performance. I really love how sophisticated, yet simply elegant her foods are. One of my recent favorites is her twist on Caprese salad. Her husband does not like tomatoes so she substituted the tomatoes for sweet, juicy mangoes! What do you say Roberto? You game? (Roberto on the other hand is a lover of tomatoes, and not a lover of mangoes…)!!!
Also, she has the cutest profile pic of her stuffed in a large stock pot - no joke, get over there and check it out!

I really want to also give a special shout out this week to Ivy, Valli
and Judy for awarding me with such honors as these. Things like this really do make my day and keep me going. I thank you all for all your support and keep blogging! Consider all of you tagged for these awards, because you all make my day and give this blog purpose

Summer is definitely closing in on the heels of spring here in the Sunshine State of Florida. We finally had to succumb to putting the AC on yesterday. The humidity here is getting out of control - so we use the AC to take the moisture out of the air. This always portends the coming of summer in this climate. Since by the time we get back from the wedding, summer will be in full swing here, I thought this week I would feature blogs that make me think of summer for various reasons. That way, if you are still in the beginning of spring where you are, you can use ideas from this blog to get your summer on!

First off, we must talk about Cynthia’s Blog Tastes Like Home
She lives in Barbados, but is originally from Guyana and talks about Guyanese food (as well as other Caribbean cuisine). Everyone in the food blogosphere knows Cynthia - her blog is very popular and she has many loyal readers. I think it is because the way she writes about food and her food photography makes it feel like you are sitting at her table, sharing her food with her, while she talks to you about it. I imagine visiting Cynthia, would be much the same as reading her blog. Cynthia was one of the first people to welcome me to the foodie blogosphere and her passion for the foods of the Caribbean is what keeps all the visitors coming back!

Next we have my good friend Ben, from What’s Cooking?
Ben grew up around food in his parents’ restaurant in Mexico. So his love and understanding of food goes way back to his childhood. Mexican food is so ubiquitous these days - with restaurants dedicated to that food in nearly every town in the US. Ben focuses on real, authentic Mexican food - which is actually very hard to find, despite all the restaurants that claim to serve it. I love reading his posts because I usually learn something - whether it be an ingredient, or a way of preparing a dish I have eaten, but never really knew how to make it. His blog is fresh and delicious!

Then we have Sylvia of La Vida en Buenos Aires y afines…
Sylvia’s blog impresses me each and every time I visit it. Her dishes are always innovative and beautiful. The composition of her dishes is clearly a work of art and she has a very fine touch - very aesthetic and I am sure delicious as well. I always knew there were a lot of Italians in Argentina, because I had a few Argentinian friends in high school. There is a fusion to Argentinian cooking - it is a mix of Latin and Italian flavors. A taste of Europe in South America. Fusion cultures always fascinate me. I love to see how the native foods of a country change after its people emigrate elsewhere. Although Sylvia is originally from Brazil (another wonderful food country), her husband is Italian, so she is often making Italian food - in ways that are slightly different than their Americanized counterparts. She also makes a lot of beautiful dishes native to South America and the grilling culture there. Always intersting.

Next is Nikki from Canary Girl
Nikki and her family live in the Canary Islands, Spain. Her food is so good! She has a good time in the kitchen, often experimenting and just enjoying time with her kids. Her blog gives off this fun-loving feel. Again, her food just always looks so fresh and delicious - like it is just jumping off the plate at you and you just want to bite right into it!

Another Caribbean blog I love is Sarina’s Trini Gourmet
The goal of her blog for her is to bring the cuisine of Trinidad to a larger global market. It really is an impressive blog, full of great pictures and step by step instructions for some fabulous recipes. I tell you, there is a whole world of food out there that I really don’t know much about, but it sure gets my taste buds working when I look at those beautiful dishes.

So here is my tribute to summer coming on!

If you would like to nominate your favorite blog from The Foodie Blogroll, please click here

If you would like to JOIN The Foodie Blogroll, for your chance to have your blog featured here, please click here

Okay, so the theme for today’s FFF is yours, the readers’ favorites. I have spent the last several weeks introducing you all to my favorites (and believe me, there are still more to come), but today I wanted to educate myself even more and feature blogs that you all have recommended, that I am not very familiar with. If you would like to nominate your favorite blog, please click here and write in your favorite blog. Remember the only rule for nominations is that the blog has to be a member of The Foodie Blogroll! With almost 2000 blogs, that can’t be too hard! If you have not joined The Foodie Blogroll, click here to join!

Now onto the blogs.

I know there are a lot of lovers of pork out there. There have been many discussions about this, the finest of meats, over in the forum. So this one is for you: Bacon Unwrapped. Now, sausage is personally my favorite way to joy in the pork, but I think the majority’s favorite is Bacon and Heather, who runs this blog must agree. It always impresses me to see blogs that are are so singularly minded - as it takes a lot of work to find material to write about all the time. So when you want to learn the latest trends in bacon, you gotta give this blog a try!

The next blog intrigued me to check it out based on the name:
Bake & Destroy!
I love the dichotomy here- baking is always associated with domestic living, while destroying is clearly a warrior quality! So I had to find out - what is going on over there?! This is a great blog devoted to the sweeter things in life, like cupcakes, chocolate and confections but with a punk rock twist. These are not your ordinary cupcakes either, my friend oh no, there are mac n’cheese cupcakes, and I understand there is to be a Boston Baked Beans cupcake coming up! Count me IN!
Here are some great quotes that give you a flavor for this blog: “My mom and my bosses at the bakery taught me a lot about the science of baking, but punk rock taught me to make it my own” and “The world is your cupcake, dudes! So make it rad.” Thanks for your rad blog.

Then there is Matt from Wrightfoods a blog devoted to local, seasonal eating in the Pacific Northwest. The Pacific Northwest has a lot of great local markets and that whole region of the US has a different way of looking at the world. It is pretty much cutting edge in the local eating revolution. Which of course, I am a big fan of. Which has made me a big fan of this blog. The recipes are down to earth, but with a real touch of class. I am sure if you have enjoyed my recent posts about local and seasonal eating, you will enjoy this discovery as much as I did.

Another great cupcake blog is Airy Fairy Cupcakes, by Sinead.
I really do love these blogs devoted to cupcakes. There is something childlike, sophisticated and whimsical all wrapped up in a cupcake. When you eat them, they make you feel like a kind again, but with people for a real passion for cupcakes, they decorate them beautifully to appeal to adult tastes as well. I am very much into the whimsy aspects of life and this blog has whimsy plastered all over it, from the name, to the look of the cupcakes themselves. A real artist’s touch - and the medium is cupcake.

And finally to end this with a punch, is Michelle’s blog, Thursday Night Smackdown! Every Thursday night she dusts off one of her old cookbooks and her oven mitts and bends a recipe to her iron will! This blog is witty and real and will make you start feeling a little bold. I dare you to read a few entries and not laugh! But it isn’t just for the humor that this blog is written - there is a real love for food and a great cook to serve it up to you.

Just a reminder! You have only 4 more days to post your entry for this month’s Royal Foodie Joust! The ingredients are:
something from the sea, lime and coconut!

I can honestly say I am overwhelmed daily by the generosity of the Food Blogging Community. People are supportive of new ideas, helpful when you ask, and it doesn’t take long to feel like you have a whole world of friends out there. One day I have dreams of traveling around the world, and meeting up with all my friends from the community of foodies I have met online. So what does this have to do with this picture of ice cream? We will get to all of that, in due time…

It is almost a year since I began this journey into food blogging and it is one of the best things I ever did with my time. It has helped me re-affirm my passion for food and has made me realize that food and networking with other foodies is where my future lies.

I am getting married in less than a month, so I will continue to post regularly until the first week in April (- after which I am taking a 3 week hiatus), but I may not be able to make my normal rounds to all my favorite blogs. Just know that it is nothing personal and I can’t wait to see you all again in May! Thanks for your support! Also be sure to read the end of this post with an update about The Foodie Blogroll!

Anyway, back to the point of my post…making friends in the blogosphere…so a while back, if you are a regular reader of Valli’s blog, More Than Burnt Toast(and if by some crazy stretch of the imagination, you aren’t a regular reader of her blog – GET ON OVER THERE!) you will have read that she and I did a little foodie exchange. I was enamored of her birch syrup (my favorite tree) and she wanted to try tamarinds. So we decided to have a little exchange! Well I gave her the wrong address and so it took a while for the birch syrup to get here – but it did, along with some delicious maple sugar – I love that stuff!!! Recently my mom gave Roberto and I a Cuisinart Ice Cream maker as an early wedding present (THANKS, MOM!)– so I decided to christen the ice cream maker by making Birch Ice Cream (recipe to follow).

Then the next day, the postman comes a knocking AGAIN (– he must wonder what in the world we are up to at our house!). I am looking at this package and I see a familiar name: Nuria! A package all the way from Spain – and inside a wonderful apron with an octopus on it (I LOVE THEM - how did she know???) and a vacuum sealed package of her prized Iberian Acorn Ham. If you don’t know Nuria’s blog, Spanish Recipes (and again shame on you!!!) check it out and you will see how much she loves this stuff! But she sent this wonderful surprise to Roberto and I as a wedding present! I think we are going to enjoy it best this way.

So thank you Nuria and Valli from the depths of my heart! You two really made my week!

Read more…

I work hard everyday to make this day Greener in my household than the last. It is a constant struggle between convenience and doing what I know is better for the earth. This year I have made a commitment to my local farmers by purchasing over 75 % of my food items from the Farmer’s Market and changing my recipes to suit what is available seasonally. I am still as committed as ever to using leftovers and not throwing away food AND taking less trips to the grocery store because of it.

I recycle like crazy – people call me the “recycle nazi”. I use recycled paper products when I use paper products – but mostly use cloth napkins and placemats for eating. I ration paper towels and plastic bags – rewashing them for later use. I use environmentally friendly cleaning products. We have even stopped eating non-organic meats and have cut way down on meat intake altogether. I am a self-professed Tree-Hugger, no I am NOT a hippy or flower child – though there is nothing wrong with those labels, they just never really fit me.

I get asked a lot why I went to college to study Native American studies. Being a white anthropologist comes with its baggage, but for me, it was not about learning about “the other” it was about me needing to learn from Native peoples how we can better take care of the earth. It is something I have always been passionate about, but not something ingrained in our culture, so I wanted to go to the experts.

I have always respected and it has always resonated with me that Native people have a spiritual and environmental approach to the way they look at the earth, which cannot be separated from each other – they go hand in hand. It has always been the same for me as well. The earth is our mother, we cannot own her and we should not ravage her – we should be more considerate about how much space we take up in the world – or we will have no world left to take care of. This does not mean we all have to become militant about being Greener, but just being conscious about it and doing little things in our daily life to make our imprint on Mother Earth a little smaller. Small changes can make a big difference.

So today, in honor of people who are doing their part, I want to feature my Top 5 Green Blogs – these blogs are managed by people who are doing what they can to look out for our Mother Earth – through the food choices they make, how they prepare their food and how they purchase it. I commend them for their conscious effort to make the world a little Greener. So go check these blogs out – get ideas, and that can be your one step closer to Green-ness TODAY!

First there is Eat Here Now. This blog focuses on eating locally and sustainably. The mission of the blog is to bring awareness and understanding that there are social, political and environmental factors to what and how we eat. Not only does it give you a more cerebral take on food, it offers up some yummy recipes that you can feel good about preparing!

Food Revolution: This blog is relatively new and currently having some technical difficulties due to a change in blog hosting – but please go check it out – it is a great concept for all of us foodies and we can all learn something – how to make a food budget and really stick to it – buying only what you really need and trying to make that food last! It causes you to be really creative and really think before you buy! When you purchase food with this concept, you can’t help but eat healthier!

Food Stories: This is a great blog all about the experiment of eating seasonally and really doing only that. Many studies relating to health show that having a seasonal diet is better for you, because it is genetically what our bodies are looking for. I love that this blog because behind it is a second philosophy - food as a celebration. Good food tastes good too!

The Year of Eating Seasonally: The philosophy behind this blog is, the fresher the food, the better the taste. It all came from eating a strawberry fresh, when it was in season, and getting so excited about the concept that when foods are in season, they taste better. This experience launched a whole experiment – to see if food is really better seasonally and if one is stuck eating only cabbage in winter. It is also an experiment to learn more about the hunger gap – if you eat what is only in the ground that season, is it really that bad or do you really feel deprived or hungry? Very cool stuff. Her family is going to learn so much about the environment – I think it is great to raise kids this way!

Then there is, Straight From The Farm. It is all about living in an urban area, but still committing to eating locally, or straight from the farm. In this blog you get the perspective of the farmers as well as those that support them by using their food exclusively. It is a wonderful project and so inspiring!

And here I need to honorable mention Judy, from No Fear Entertaining. Over the past several months there has been a HUGE transformation in Judy and the focus of her blog. She has been frequenting her local Farmer’s Market as well – and has made a commitment to eating locally. I feel a special bond with Judy, because not only are we both Florida girls, but we both started this journey around the same time. We get inspired by each other’s bounty and the dishes we make from our finds! So way to go Judy! You Rock, Girlfriend!

I am so honored and pleased to announce that I am being featured in this month’s (March 2008) issue of Yogi Times Magazine!!!

It is a Los Angeles based Yoga Lifestyle Magazine and they contacted me to create a meal out of leftovers and staples for their Yoga Yummies Section in this month’s issue focusing on abundance. Roberto did the photo shoot and I created the recipes and made the food! It was a great joint effort. So thank you very much to Yogi Times Magazine for giving me this wonderful opportunity. I want to especially thank Nicole over there who interviewed me and wrote the article. It was such a pleasure to work with them and to speak with Nicole on the phone.

Healthy eating and lifestyle is something that is very important to me and of course the use of leftovers is paramount in my cooking philosophy. So it was so great to be able to bring these two things together and create a whole new menu from that inspiration.

And of course I must formally thank Roberto for his help and his beautiful photography and PATIENCE and for being my partner in everything!

Hope you guys enjoy the recipes!

To read the feature and see the recipe for
Spicy Carrot Soup click here.

For the Potato and Spring Onion Frittata recipe, click here.

For the Chai Spiced Bread Pudding recipe, click here.

To see more of Roberto’s awesome photography, check out my gallery page.

HUGE FOODIE BLOGROLL UPDATE!!!! PLEASE READ IF YOU ARE ON THE FOODIE BLOGROLL!!!

Well in the past several months 2 things have happened consistently that brought me to a major decision regarding The Foodie Blogroll and its fate. Number one, I have been wanting to use it as a better tool for community building. As I have said before, this is the first blogroll for foodies and we are over 1000 members strong. We have a forum, where we hold a monthly event – The Royal Foodie Joust and it has been so great getting to know all the world’s foodies better. I have started showcasing the best of the best of The Foodie Blogroll each Friday in the Finest Foodie Friday installments. But I want more community! So Roberto and I have been working on a way to make this possible. We went through several different ideas, but finally decided to give The Foodie Blogroll it’s own home: www.foodieblogroll.com. In the upcoming months we will be making this more user friendly. Right now, as Roberto puts it, it is a skeleton.

Why did we do it this way? Well lately we have been having trouble with blogrolling.com our hosting company for the blogroll. I think it is just too big for them to handle! I was getting a lot of complaints from members that the blogroll was slowing their blogs down. So we knew something had to be done immediately. Unfortunately with our wedding coming up in just weeks, we knew if we gave the Foodie Blogroll its home NOW, it wouldn’t be all we hoped, but it was better than nothing and would make life easier for all the members. So it was the lesser of two evils.

THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

1)The blogroll html contains only 3 links now: a link to join the blogroll, a link to foodieblogroll.com where the entire list is being hosted and a link to the forum. If you have altered the html code I originally gave you, at all, none of these 3 links will show.
So please put the entire foodie blogroll code as it was originally sent to you in your sidebar template. I promise it will not take a long time to load three links! Also, now that we are doing all this maintenance we are visiting lots of blogs at random to check that the proper URLs are in use, if you joined The Foodie Blogroll but are no longer displaying anything about it, you will be removed from the blogroll.

2)The blogroll list is spartan at best right now and if you are one of the first 150 blogs to join the blogroll, it was before, Roberto, computer whiz, created the foodie blogroll database that I now use to do everything I need to maintain the blogroll. This means that your blog will be (temporarily) in the W section (for www.) – since we had to import all of your blog info from a word document I was using in the beginning to track members – something that proved very hard to do at 2 AM this morning. So I apologize for this inconvenience, but it is better than slow loading time, right????
I promise this will be fixed soon – but we have to go in and manually change it all – something that wasn’t happening early this morning.

However, this is the bad news. The good news is that in the coming months www.foodieblogroll.com will be full of great features. Each member will have their own customizable page – where you can include a picture and there will be stats to show you how often you blog is viewed through the blogroll. You can also chose a subcategory that best describes your food blog so it will make it easier for people to find you, when they are searching for something specific. There will also be a section showcasing random blogs from the blogroll, something many of you from the second half of the alphabet expressed an interest in. Right now the page features the last 10 blogs that have joined introducing all of you to our newest members. These are random right now, because we had to imput those 150 first blogs last night, with today’s date - so now you will see old favorites and later the newest. So it is going to be great – but at the present time, due to personal obligations, I am not able to give you all that I hoped straight off the bat. I do apologize for that. That is not how I like to run things.

So you asked and we delivered! Boy Genius and I have given The Foodie Blogroll a new home so that your pages will load faster while still supporting the blogroll and reaping all the benefits of being part of this diverse, original and unique community of food bloggers!

So I hope everyone will be okay with this temporary solution. We will really do the best we can to get the total package up and running for you guys as soon as possible! Thank you so much for our understanding and support through all of this and I am very sorry for any inconvenience!

Since this is taking up all the room in the house today, I am not going to showcase the Finest Foodie Friday today – I don’t want to steal their thunder will all this Foodie Blogroll stuff. But stay tuned next week, I will feature my Top 5 Favorite Green Blogs!

Have a great food filled weekend everybody!

Well it is that time of the month again! Time to announce the winners of this month’s Royal Foodie Joust!
Last month’s Joust was won by Heather of
Gild The Voodoolily . So she not only won her own personalized apron but she also picked this challenge’s 3 ingredients: Pork (or Barley), Citrus (any kind) and Pink or White Peppercorns. Every month this challenge gets bigger and better with the contestants bringing their best and most creative energies to the floor! If you are not familiar with this event – 3 ingredients are chosen by the previous month’s winner. All the contestants must use those 3 ingredients and any other ingredients to create a new signature dish. We have had some very creative entries each and ever month!

So if you have not joined us in the past, please stop by the forum today and sign up, so you can participate as well and get our chance to win the Queen’s Favor and your own personalized apron!

Now for the winners:

In FIRST PLACE we have Valli of
More Than Burnt Toast with her succulent and tender Citrus Spice-Rubbed Baby Backs Ribs.

Valli has been a participant in the Joust since its earliest days and came this month with a real knockout! Everyone’s mouths were watering with her entry! Way to go Valli! Well deserved indeed!

In Second Place we have Michelle aka Us vs. Food from Thursday Night Smackdown with
Five-Spice Pork Tenderloin with Blood Orange Gastrique and Carrot-Squash Puree

A real show stopper, with beautiful presentation! Great job!

In Third place we have Allen of
Eating Out Loud with his Pork Adobo.

Allen is new to the competition but wowed everyone with his use of the ingredients! Thanks for participating Allen and we’ll see you in the next Joust I am sure!

My thanks to all the participants – everyone did a great job and I hope to see everyone in the next addition of
The Royal Foodie Joust!
To see all the entries, click here.

Click here for more information on how you can participate in this month’s event!