This is a great dish to serve your loved one(s) for Valentine’s day. The flavors are unique, as are some of the ingredients which makes it a special kind of meal. Yet at the same time it is quite easy to prepare – the oven does most of the work. It is like fancied soul food.

Lately, I have been trying to familiarize myself with artisan brews. For years, like a lot of people, I thought I just didn’t like beer. But I have come to find that once in a while, I do enjoy a bit of the bubbly. I prefer unique brews, generally dark porters and stouts, and I love British style hard cider (which isn’t beer either…), but sometimes a lighter beer catches my fancy. I have always been fascinated with the Ancient world, especially in Northern Europe. The myths, stories and legends of Scotland, England, Ireland, Brittany in Northern France, and Scandinavia have always been my favorites. Of course due to my food obsession, I have also been curious about ancient feasts – the foods and cuisines.

Years ago I found an amazing ale, the likes of which has been made in Scotland for over 4,000 years. This ale is brewed with heather flowers and Scottish malt and has a very floral flavor. It is quite refreshing and crisp, and goes really well with roasted chicken. It can also be enjoyed on it’s own, or with really earthy cheeses, like raw cow or sheep milk cheeses, which often have a grassy quality to them.

In light of recently finding out a bit more about my biological ancestry, I decided that it would be fun to start exploring more of the foods and dishes of Northern Europe (perhaps that explains my long held fascination with that area of the world, and its history). I also happened upon a pack of Fraoch, Scottish Heather Ale,and felt inspired to make roasted whole chicken legs and root veggies with a heather ale sauce. In honor of our upcoming move to Vermont, I also added some maple syrup to enhance the sweetness of the ale, and used Herbs de Provence to enhance the floral qualities. I can honestly say the result was one of the best dishes I have made in a while. If I had known how good this was going to be, I would have made it for Valentine’s Day. It is definitely special enough for that. Thank you kitchen muses for this wonderful meal! Sometimes, hobbies and interest outside of the kitchen, can really inspire us, IN the kitchen. This dish is certainly a testament to that.

For dessert, be sure to try my Spicy Mayan Hot Chocolate . It is a recipe from my e-book The Secret Energy of Love Through Food .

Here is a sweet way that you can give a little this Valentine’s Day – I will be giving all the proceeds for the book, during the month of February, to blogger efforts on behalf of Haiti relief.

Half will go to H2Ope for Haiti (a way to raise funds to supply water to Haiti by BloggerAid-CFF) and the other half will go to

Stir It  28 for Haiti

So please buy a copy today!  And please spread the word! This is a perfect cookbook  for Valentine’s Day and any day to share a delicious meal with any loved one!

You can also send a donation directly to Stir It 28 by going to Bren’s blog There is a Paypal donation box on the upper right hand side and to H2ope for Haiti by going to this Justgiving Page .

Recipe under the cut…

Read the rest of this entry »

(My first attempts—deformed æbleskiver…)

Have you had Æbleskiver (pronounced EB-el-sku-wyr)? They are yummy and delicious, cute and round Danish Pancakes that can be eaten with syrup, like pancakes, or filled with anything from fruit to cream, or even Nutella! I imagine some savory combinations too – like apples and cheddar, perhaps?

I heard about them several years ago, but saw them being cooked for the first time in San Francisco, this past November, at the Foodbuzz Food Bloggers Festival. That is where I met Chad Gillard, co-owner of Aunt Else’s Æbleskiver. He was there in the afternoon’s tasting pavilion as part of the Foodzie crew, demonstrating how to make æbleskiver using Aunt Else’s Æbleskiver Mix which is made with organic, Minnesota grown wheat & organic buttermilk from Wisconsin and using Aunt Else’s high quality, locally made 9-hole cast iron æbleskiver pan. I was really intrigued and got in touch with Chad after the festival to see if he wanted to do a giveaway on Foodieblogroll.com, so we could start an Æbleskiver Revolution in the Food Blogging world! So that is how I came to be a lucky recipient of an æbleskiver pan and Aunt Else’s mix at no charge for hosting the giveaway.

I decided that my maiden attempt to make æbleskiver would be over Thanksgiving, while my family was visiting. I wanted everyone to have a chance to taste these little darlings, and I was excited to offer something unique for breakfast. I had prepared the cast iron pan the night before so it was all set. When it was time, I used coconut oil to prepare the pan for cooking. Making the mix was easy – just add eggs and water and you are ready to go! Just like pancakes, the first few batches didn’t really look as round and cute as Chad’s did at the festival – but then again, I comforted myself in that knowledge that he is a professional! I was about to get discouraged, but then the batches started coming out great! It is fun to make æbleskiver, after you pour the batter in, you turn them several quarter turns using a metal implement that comes with the kit. Back in the day, the Danes would use a knitting needle – but I suppose you could also use a chopstick!

I decided to make a simple version – just plain and sprinkled with powdered sugar! Powdered sugar makes everything look pretty – even my deformed æbleskiver! I served them with maple syrup for dipping.

(Practice makes perfect….)

I really love Aunt Else’s stuff, especially the fact that they are a small company making their product locally, and using local and organic ingredients in their mix. That is something I feel really good about supporting. For your chance to win your own Æbleskiver Kit, check out Aunt Else’s Contest Page on The Foodie Blogroll. Mange tak, Chad and Aunt Else’s!

I am really excited to announce that over the next 10 weeks, I along with many of my fellow food bloggers spanning the globe, are taking part in Ten in 2010. #10in10 is the brainchild of Lori from Recipe Girl. I think it is a great idea for those who want support in getting a jump on their health and fitness goals this year, whatever they are. If you are already on your way, or just starting, this is a great group to join!

I have really been working on “getting healthy” over the past year. For those of you who follow me on Twitter and Facebook, you know I talk about my fitness goals a lot. It never used to be that way. I used to be “allergic to exercise”, and try to find any other route to look the way I wanted to, that didn’t involve exercise. But when we decided we wanted to move back to VT, and raise animals and garden, I knew I had to get some strength. It started out as my New Year’s Resolution for 2009 – this would give myself over a year to get there. But what I found, was a new passion! Now, my day just isn’t right if I don’t sweat a little But you will never find me in a gym (unless I am doing martial arts). I have been hunting for regular exercise and strength training that I can do with as little equipment as possible and that I truly enjoy. If possible, ones that teach me a skill while getting exercise in at the same time- factors I know will keep me on track, personally. One of my goals is to get into a fitness routine – that doesn’t feel like a fitness routine, but is FUN!

But what does “getting healthy” mean? And how does one get there? And what does this have to do with food blogging?

First, “getting healthy” means different things to different people. For me, it means building endurance. It means having an increased measure and reserve of energy (I tend to be a low-energy person) so I can do the things I love without being tired. It means being balanced emotionally. It means having the ability to lift heavy things without hurting myself. It means being able to enjoy outdoor activities like hiking, kayaking, and possibly snowshoeing without extremely taxing myself or holding back fellow participants. It means, conditioning my body to be able to handle the manual labor that comes with farm work. It also means giving my body the best chance I can to live to 100 years old, staying off prescription drugs and staying away from the doctor as much as possible. It also means having arms like Sarah Connor and being able to outrun the Terminators

How you get there, is by doing a lot of research, making a very specific plan for yourself based on what you want to achieve, and sticking to it. It also means having the right fuel for your body. That is where the connection to food blogging comes in. This year I am freeing myself of buzzwords. Finding a new set of rules that works for me and my body – beyond low-fat, low-carb, sugar-free, protein packed, and all this terminology that is supposed to get you to optimal health and fitness, which never worked for me anyway. Besides humans were fit and healthy before any of this stuff was imagined into existence. So we have the capability to do that again!

I am not a big fan of protein bars/shakes as an everyday thing. I don’t like the word “diet”, I like “lifestyle change”.  I will never eat a diet meal plan that come out of a box, jar, or plastic square, and I certainly don’t like low-fat, low-sugar foods, which are generally a key word for “full of chemicals”. So my diet is not likely to change from the kinds of foods I have been blogging about over the past several months. It is important for me to continue to make foods from scratch, using whole foods that make me feel good and give me the energy to go on. Since this is a large part of what being healthy means to me, I won’t sacrifice real, nourishing foods, for the sake of “getting healthy”. To me, it is an oxymoron.

This summer I tried the low-fat, 1300 calories/day avenue and it did not work for me. I was tracking my caloric intake and calculating grams of protein, fat, and carbs. I was trying to lose about 5-8 lbs of fat, while at the same time gaining muscle. I went to a personal trainer and followed their diet and exercise plan, which required eliminating 20 grams of fat per day from my diet. After 2 weeks I started getting really clumsy, I was bruising easier, I lost productivity with my work. I was losing things. My digestion was bad. I was also very emotional and mentally exhausted. This is the very opposite of my definition of “healthy”. It was then that I realized how much my brain needed fat – good fat – things like nuts, fish oil, olive oil, avocados, eggs, cheese, yogurt and kefir –items which cannot be consumed in regular amounts while trying to stay under 30 grams of fat per day (since those calculators don’t differentiate between good and bad fats). My body also thrives on protein, but gets bogged down with a lot of grains – which is not the same thing as carbs.

I am not a doctor, nor am I certified to tell people how they should pursue their own health goals. I am speaking from my own experience when I say everyone’s body is individual and responds differently to exercise and food. So sometimes it takes a while to reach your goals – because first you have to figure out how to get there. So don’t get frustrated! You can get there! Sometimes it is easier, and sometimes you gotta work for it a little harder!

So here marks the second year on my journey to health. I will continue with weight lifting, calisthenics and cardio. I will also continue with archery. However, I will let go of Martial Arts (for now), as we just don’t have time for everything, something has to give, and this year, it will not be my sanity! I will add kettle bells to my routine and some outdoor activities, especially once we move to Vermont in April.

My goals for this 10 week challenge are:

* Bicep curl sets (3 sets of 10) w/ 20 lb free weights (one 20 lb. dumb bell per arm) – currently I am at 15 lbs.

* One unassisted pull-up – Currently I can do 7 assisted (with a chair under me)

*Turn upper/ inner leg flab to muscle – my biggest problem area

* Lose one pant size

How am I going to do this?

* I will continue my healthy eating plan – but instead of almost daily ice cream treats, I will enjoy a smoothie from my Vitamix 80 % of the time, instead.

* I will not succumb to bread, pasta and grain ladened foods. Instead choosing to eat exclusively veggie pastas like corn, or jerusalem artichoke, and enjoy my grasses like buckwheat and quinoa.

* I will exercise 4-5x/wk, for 30-45 minutes per session – either doing weight lifting, kettle bells, a cardio routine, outdoor activities, practicing martial arts at home, or a combination thereof.

* I will go to range 3x/month to continue with archery training.

Thank you Lori for putting this together for everyone! It is a great way to start the new year and get the support of others!

To read more about the challenge and see how is participating, check out this link!

We had a great time this fall in New England this year visiting family and friends. Thanksgiving is over, and posted, and so now the time has come to share some of the highlights in eating and visiting that we enjoyed in New England. We traveled from Connecticut to Vermont and back again. In fact we drove up to New England from Florida, stopping at my Aunt’s house in VA both on the way up and on the way back. We got to spend time with Roberto’s daughters Rachel and Gwen as well as many friends along the way. It was a wonderful time – a time I have looked forward to every year since we moved to Florida.

We spent a large portion of the trip in Western MA. I lived in the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts for over 10 years. I came to live there by way of education, and then after 4 years of college, decided to stay. I was just so enamored of the place – the quaint towns, historic buildings, and good food, as well as all the cultural activities taking place due to all the colleges in the area. I made a lot of lifelong friends while I lived there and was definitely part of a community. When I think about that time in my life, I get a warm and fuzzy feeling – and I always enjoy spending time there. I have moved away from New England twice since I lived there, once to go back to my home state of Maryland for a few years, and the other when we moved to Florida three years ago. Each time I move away, I find myself missing it, and it doesn’t take long before New England re-claims me. I guess I am a New Englander at heart, and I am proud of it!

People in New England are just nice. It is a very eclectic kind of place sometimes, and so it is typical to have friends from all walks of life. People are just more accepting of paradoxes, creativity and uniqueness. I don’t know how to describe it, but I always find myself gravitating towards New Englanders wherever we are, and that is how we met Valley Writer and Mr. Valley Writer.

We met them, almost 2 years ago, when we were all newlyweds, spending our honeymoon in Jamaica. We originally met them at a social for newlyweds and then ended up running into them at breakfast one morning. So we decided to sit together. We found out we had a lot in common. She and I are both writers (this was before her now famous blog), we both have black cats with asthma, and we both were practically neighbors at one point without even knowing it, in a small New England town called Hatfield. She met her husband the same way I met Roberto – online, and in the same time frame. So likely I ran across Mr. Valley Writer’s profile in my searches…who knows. But there was just so much in common (besides the love of food and cooking) that we knew we were meant to be friends. We visited with Mr and Mrs. Valley Writer last year when we were in New England . Then this year, they graciously invited us to stay with them for a few days.

When we arrived, the first thing we did was take a quick drive to a local farm, and pick up her last CSA of the year. We picked out some nice root veggies to make some roasted roots – my favorite – to go along with dinner that night. The plan for dinner that night was to make duck. Neither of us had ever made a duck before, so we were both very excited at the prospect. We were worried about the method of cooking, we didn’t want it to be dry.

So we decided to do it beer can style, and used a raspberry wheat beer in the preparation. It turned out really delicious – although it did make the house a little smoky – all that delicious duck fat (which of course was reserved for later use)!

We enlisted Roberto to cut the duck – and of course he had to wear Amber’s Flirty Apron that she won a few months back from The Foodie Blogroll.

(Mr. Valley Writer likes to keep his identity hidden….just WHO is HE?)

The food was really good that night, but the company was the best part! We all had a great time getting re-acquainted with each other and getting to know each other better – and it was a breeze. Sometimes you just really hit it off with another couple, and this was one of those times!

Unfortunately Mr. And Mrs. Valley Writer both had to work while we were visiting. So the next night, to thank them for their hospitality, Roberto and I decided to get some extra ingredients, and cook them dinner. There was already a pork tenderloin in the fridge, so we decided to add some wild rice, glazed carrots, and miniature carrot cakes from Whole Foods (which used to be called Bread and Circus in that part of the world) to complete the meal. We prepared the pork in a fresh apple cider and dijon mustard sauce, and it was delicious. When they got home from work, we all started working together in the kitchen! What else can you expect from a bunch of foodies? This time we had Mr. Valley Writer do the honors on cutting the meat.

Again the food was great and the company spectacular! We had a wonderful few days spending time with them, and look forward to continuing our friendship when we move up to Vermont this spring!

Thanks Valley Writer family for your hospitality and friendship! Please check out her post about our visit together on her blog, Adventures in the Pioneer Valley !

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In addition to Finest Foodies Friday, I am also phasing the Royal Foodie Joust Winners and New Ingredients posts over to Foodieblogroll.com. So if you want to read about the winners and the new ingredients. Please visit Foodieblogroll.com.

Also for more foodie fun, don’t forget to join us at my friend Ben’s blog for a Homemade Party!

Are you looking for Finest Foodies Friday? If so, please go over to Foodieblogroll.com. From now on, all Finest Foodies Friday posts  will be featured over there! Click here to check out today’s featured blogs!

It has been almost two years since I have written a non-Finest Foodies Friday post on Friday on this blog! So I decided to post something simple, yet profound (for me, in any case). A few months ago I posted about Breakfast being the most important meal of the day. What I like to call my “Breakfast of Champions”.  In that post I mentioned that I soaked my grains or grasses (buckwheat/quinoa) for 24 hours before cooking them in my breakfast. The post also explains my reasons behind soaking. I got a lot of comments about how good the breakfast looked, but about how it was too time consuming with the soaking for most people to make everyday.

I have wanted to write a post addressing this for a while, so yesterday as I was doing my weekly soaking and dairy product making, Roberto reminded me that I should post about it. So here I am. Basically I am here to say that you can soak your grains, grasses and legumes and make dairy products on a weekly basis, without taking much time out of your busy schedule. In fact, doing this helps you to save time during the week, because you have food ready to go. As I was telling Amy the other day, that this is my idea of convenience food. You can check out her time saving efforts here.

Basically prep time for getting beans and grains soaking is about as long as it takes to boil a cup of water and mix it with apple cider vinegar and more water to cover. Then it does the work itself over 24 hours. If you want to take it further you can cook them to almost al dente, and then freeze them for throwing into quick meals later in the week. The beauty of that is that while they are cooking, you can be doing other things. You can even cook them in your crock pot, and you don’t even have to be home!

The same can be said for dairy products. Every week I make yogurt, kefir and some kind of cheese. If you let your milk come to room temperature before cooking it to make these items, the whole process takes about 5 minutes. Maybe 15 for yogurt. Then you let it sit for 12-24 hours, while you are doing other things.

This week I made creme fraiche, which is a delicious version of sour cream! It is well worth the extra few minutes in taste as well as health because you can monitor exactly what goes into it.

All you need is 2 days – and really only about an hour or two on both of those days of actual labor. If you don’t have that much time, you could break it up into ½ hour over several days. Between yesterday and the day before, I made 8 cups of homemade turkey stock in my crockpot. I also soaked chick peas, buckwheat, 2 kinds of rice and oatmeal AND I made yogurt, kefir and creme fraiche. If you can spare 2 hours a week, you can do this too! It is fun, easy, a way to save money, and much better tasting than what you can buy at the store in cans, as well as better for your health! So try it today!

To get you started on the benefits of soaking beans, grains, grasses and making your own stock, please check out: Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats

If you want to get into making dairy products, please check out: Home Cheese Making: Recipes for 75 Delicious Cheeses

Have fun and enjoy!!!!

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

For those of us in the US, yesterday was Thanksgiving. I hope all of our US members enjoyed their holiday and aren’t too stuffed with turkey and all the trimmings. I know for me, Thanksgiving dinner is my favorite, most anticipated meal of the year, and we were lucky enough to host my mom, dad and stepmom this Thanksgiving. More about that later….

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.

Culinary Disasters Blog

This blog is written by Jeff, another foodie I really “met” via Twitter. He participates in the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge – where bloggers are baking their way through the cookbook of the same title. I love bread, and I make bread at home, so I always enjoy getting inspiration from his bread posts. He will disclose all failures AND successes. He says about his blog: “I am not a writer nor am I a photographer; I am simply a lowly underpaid and overworked computer guy. So do not be alarmed by the bad grammar, horrendous spelling, and even worse photography that this site offers. It is just me being me. Maybe if I make it big I would hire someone to do that part for me…..ok who I am kidding I would spend the money on truffles, veal, strange cheeses, or something that can be devoured.” Now that is a true foodie speaking! LOL!

The Closet Chef

The Closet Chef is authored by Peter, and it is a fairly new blog, started this past August. But you really wouldn’t know it if you went to visit the blog. The pictures look very professional (which is because he is a professional photographer by day! But still, the pictures are WOW), and the writing is that of a seasoned blogger. I became a fan instantly, and so will you!

Framed: My Life One Picture at a Time

Here is another food blog that focuses mainly on food photography. This is the inspiration for her blog in her own words: “Taking pictures — it makes me grin, it’s always on my mind, it satisfies my soul. And cooking, well, I am pretty much just making it up as I go along but in general it tastes pretty good. So this little blog is a lot of me and my Nikon, a lot of stuff I love to eat, and a bit of anyone or anything that will stand still long enough for me to take their picture. I hope you like reading it as much as I love cooking, photographing and writing it!” I always enjoy finding out more about people’s passions, especially when it involves food!

Lex Eat!

Lex loves everything about food. She says: “Eating delicious food is important to me and my girlfriend Y, so we are always looking to cook great food at home and eat great food out and about on our travels through London and further afield. I am writing this blog largely for my own enjoyment, and if also for the enjoyment of others then that would be really great.” I think this sums up why most of us blog. Yes, we do it for our own enjoyment, but we also love sharing with others that enjoy food as much as we do!

Stetted: The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

Megan is a copywriter by day and a food lover the rest of the time! She says: “In my spare time I cook, write, read, and take photos. I’ve found that I like cooking even more than I had thought, and even go so far as to plan our dinner menus a month at a time (which helps my developing type-A tendencies). Probably the best gift I have received this year is my apron, because I wear it almost every day. On some weekends I wear it all day.” I love her photos and her simple yet delicious looking food.

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.

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.

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Smash and Sniff

I love this blog, because it is co-authored by two cousins Ashley and Jiffer. They live on two different continents, Ashley in Mexico and Jiffer, in Germany, but they have a great time connecting through this funny and delightful food blog! I have a very special cousin too, who I love spending time with, and who I have spent a lot of time being goofy with (as these two seem to have, as well!). So this blog warmed my heart in one way, but also because this really exemplifies how food bloggers, no matter where we are in the world, can really share so much together through the internet – foraging bonds and relationships and sharing a meal together in unconventional ways.

La Faim (The Hunger)

This is a culinary manifesto from the Pacific Northwest. Written by Violet. She says: “I’ve been cooking since I was old enough to hold a wooden spoon and my favorite food memory is sitting in front of the television with my grandfather when I was little, watching Death Wish, and eating Spanish pickled mussels out of a can. I am a graduate of The Seattle Culinary Academy at SCCC. My cooking style is Spanish soul food.” Her blog has really nice photos and really good looking food! Enjoy!

Inspired Taste

This blog is written by Joanne and Adam. Joanne has always had a dream of writing her own cookbook, and so in lieu of that, Adam introduced her to the world of blogging. Much like my husband did for me! That inspired her to build her repertoire of recipes, and look for new inspiration, daily. Adam enjoys his perk as food tester, but more importantly he says he enjoys that they have found something they can work on together, just for fun!

Shindig411

I really like the word shindig! I also like celebrating with food. I always say that everyday is a good reason to celebrate something, and that food is always a celebratory event. Well this blogger, Elizabeth seems to feel the same way! Here is the inspiration behind her blog: “[it is a] blog dedicated to celebrating. Anytime. Anywhere. Here you will find recipes and menus for celebratory events, gift ideas, decorating tips and advice on proper gift-giving etiquette. With just a little thought, you can find a reason to celebrate every day of the year!” So go on and celebrate!

Kitchen Diary

This blog is written by Shannon in California. Her blog is full of wonderful and delicious pictures and recipes that celebrate the fresh produce of her state through her CSA membership and famers markets. Her blog is fairly new, started this past summer. She started this blog, because like all of us, she is obsessed with food, and blogging is a way for her to attempt to organize “the chaos that swims in my mind”. She also has this to say about her obsessions: “would include,but are not limited to, cooking for friends, drinking espresso (not starbucks!),butter,anything with the consistency of salsa, thinking about food way too much…”. Sounds good to me!

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 wanted to let everyone know, I am still around, just taking a little break from posting. I have a bit of a journey, Thanksgiving dinner (and out of town guests) to prepare for, I am working on several posts highlighting some delicious taste adventures that we enjoyed while in New England and working on some side projects.

To tide you over, if you haven’t seen them yet, please check out all my coverage from The Foodbuzz Food Bloggers Festival in San Francisco.

Also, be sure to check out last month’s Royal Foodie Joust Winners, written up by my dear friend Judy, and come join us for this month’s event!

If you still need more, please check out all the Finest Foodie Fridays!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you in the USA!