Before we get to FFF, I want to give you all a message about
The New Foodie Blogroll Website!

There has been a lot of buzz going on lately about what is going on with the Foodie Blogroll. Why is there more than one widget out there? Why haven’t the 10 random and 10 newest blogs changed in the past few weeks? etc. Well there is only good news! We have been working like busy little bees this past month getting the new and improved Foodie Blogroll site ready! We have been listening to your suggestions and there are going to be a lot of exciting changes that I know you all will love!

We are moving the Foodie Blogroll to a new hosting company and server to better serve the Foodie Blogroll community and because of this, the website and the widgets have been static for the past several weeks, while we get everything moved over and in working order. You should be expecting an email from us in the very near future (within the next week or so) with more information! So keep a lookout for the latest in The Foodie Blogroll network! Now for the FFF.

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As always here is what the FFF is all about. Finest Foodies Friday! FFF is a weekly Friday post featuring favorites from The Foodie Blogroll! We do this so we can share in the rich diversity of what The Foodie Blogroll has to offer by featuring some of our favorites yours! What is the Foodie Blogroll? It is the first and fastest growing free membership blogroll for food bloggers and has become a wonderful community (just under 2000 strong) to share ideas about all things food related.

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

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

I love Natalie‘s blog, Hot Off the Garlic Press
Natalie has such a fun and humorous personality that really shows on all her blog posts. Her food philosophy is something else I can really relate to: “gourmet in a flash”. She “love(s) to create home-made chic recipes for my foodie friends to impress their friends and family with. And I think you can make delectable creations that do a body good, and that is my aim”. Great aim, Natalie! If you haven’t been over there yet, please go say hi!

Irena‘s blog is Not Another Food Blog
There may be a lot of great food blogs out there, but Irena’s is not a blog to be missed. She has had a love for food and cooking before she even had teeth and enjoyed sucking on prosciutto as a youngster! Now that is woman who has to have grown to have great taste! She loves entertaining for friends and family and all of her hobbies revolve around food! So don’t forget to stop by her blog for some great eats!

Christy‘s blog, Southern Plate: Recipes from Below the Mason Dixon Line is the real deal. Her family line reaches back to some of the first settler families in the Tennessee valley. She has learned the art of cooking from her mama and grandmother, people who “take ingredients they have on hand and not just “make do” but make magic at the dinner table”. If you want to experience some real Southern cooking and hospitality, please go see her blog!

The Food Monster lives and eats in Los Angeles. As it just so happens I am listening to one of my favorite bands, from LA – The Red Hot Chili Peppers while writing this episode of FFF! Anyway, The Foodie Monster’s blog features recipes of his own creation, as well as adaptations from other recipes and restaurant reviews – so please be sure to check out this terrific and tasty blog!

Mallow‘s blog, Pietown is a blog worth mentioning. She has an awesome blog filled with lost of goodies, from the sweet to the savory. She has been on hiatus for a few months, but she is now back in action, armed with a new camera! So be sure to stop over and welcome her back to the blogosphere!

Remember, if you would like to see a blog featured here, who is part of the FBR please visit the forum and nominate them.

I NEED NOMINATIONS!!!!!!

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

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ROYAL FOODIE JOUST

Don’t forget to enter your creation in this month’s Royal Foodie Joust! This month’s ingredients are whole grains, citrus and ginger. Entries due Monday, September 1, 2008! Enter today for a chance to win some great prizes!
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I also want to take this oppurtunity to thank Amanda from My Finds Online for choosing The Leftover Queen as one of the
Top 50 Recipe Blogs 2008, click here to see her other picks or check out her blog for more of her finds – unique products, crafts and recipes online!

Have a great weekend everyone!

It is time once again to announce the winners of this month’s Royal Foodie Joust – a foodie event hosted on
The LeftoverQueen/FoodieBlogroll Forum! Where each month features recipes using 3 ingredients in common. It has been referred to many times as the “Iron Chef” of the Food Blogosphere. Each month’s ingredients are chosen by the previous month’s winner!

The winner of each Joust not only wins the Queen’s favor, bragging rights and a cool icon to put on their blog, but is also awarded with a super cool personalized apron! Second and Third place winners also receive prizes!

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

Last month’s winner was my friend Peter, from Kalofagas and he chose Seafood, Sesame and Cilantro as his three ingredients. This was a personal challenge to himself as well as the other Jousters and we got some really stellar dishes! Every month the participants really up the ante, but this month was by far the most professional – both in terms of presentation, photography and creativity. It was a very difficult time at the polls picking just one. So please, don’t forget to come on over to the Forum, so you can get in on the fun this month!

Now for the Winners!

In first place is Kittie of Kittens in the Kitchen!
Her dish Seafood, Sesame and Cilantro – A Trilogy!

(Or as I have officially coined it: Yummalicious!)was one of two trios entered this month. There was obviously a lot of thought and prep time taken to come up with these delicious morsels! And what are the morsels?
Well I will let Kittie explain:

“The first of the three is seared marinated tuna (in the middle!), coated with crushed coriander, szechuan pepper corns and sesame seeds. I served this with a thick tahini dressing, complete with a garlicky cilantro swirl.

Last, but by no means least – crispy fried wontons (on the left!) with a spicy fish and prawn mousse filling, served with sweet cilantro chili dipping sauce. ”

Yeah, I’d say that is a winner!

Second place is my dear friend Nuria from Spanish Recipes with her summery and delicious looking Citrics Marinated Tuna to me this looks like a bowl full of summer!

Third Place was a tie:

Ladies first…Marija from Palachinka with her Stuffed Brown Trout – talk about presentation! I don’t think I have ever had the pleasure of eating trout that way!

and

Peter from Souvlaki for the Soul with his Coconut and Sesame Crusted Prawns with Coriander/Lime Dipping Sauce I just love how great that looks – I can’t resist coconut shrimp!

CRUNCH!

I really want to thank everyone for their participation! Everyone made such beautiful dishes. If you would like to see the other entries, and I assure you that you do, come over over to the forum and sneak a peek here for recipes look here.

Now for Miss Kittie’s picks:

Whole Grains (or at least they have to be whole at the start of the recipe!)
Ginger (in any form)
Citrus (any, in any form!)

Please come and join us for another round of the Royal Foodie Joust!

It is time once again to announce the winners of this month’s Royal Foodie Joust – a foodie event hosted on
The LeftoverQueen/FoodieBlogroll Forum! Where each month features recipes using 3 ingredients in common. These ingredients are chosen by the previous month’s winner. This event is sponsored by Ben from What’s Cooking?. This means you have a chance to win Tupperware products from Ben as well as a personalized apron for the first place winner from yours truly!!!

This month’s ingredients were chosen by Erin of The Skinny Gourmet, they were Apricots, Ginger and Butter. We had a wide variety of entries from sweet to savory with flavor influences spanning the globe! But there can be only one (each month)!!!!

And this month, we passed the apron to my dear friend and Greek cooking officianado : Peter of Kalofagas with his totally rockin’ entry of
Apricot and Pistachio Cake:

Don’t you just want to bite right into that slice??? I know I do!

It was a tough competition this month. Coming in at an exciting and close second is Marija from Palachinka with her crunchy bundles of joy, called
Crispy Honey Glazed Rolls:

Taking us over to the savory side of things is lovely Annie (I like to call her Anniepooh!) from Cooking with Anne with her fantastic entry of
Gingered Pork Wontons with Apricot Plum Sauce:

All of the entries this month were wonderful, and perfect for the season with apricots being easy to find. To see all the delectable offerings, please check the rest of the wonderful dishes out here.

Thanks so much for all the entries and participation! It was really the best Joust yet!

So now the time has come to announce Peter’s choice of Ingredients! They are as follows:

Cilantro (coriander), Seafood and Sesame (seeds, oil, etc.)

Please join us here with your creations using these ingredients!

Another Friday, another Finest Foodies Friday! FFF is a weekly Friday post featuring favorites from The Foodie Blogroll! We do this so we can share in the rich diversity of what The Foodie Blogroll has to offer by featuring some of our favorites and some of yours! What is the Foodie Blogroll? It is the fastest growing blogroll for food bloggers and has become a wonderful community to share ideas about all things food related.

The only requirement to be featured here on FFF is to be a member of The Foodie Blogroll and be displaying The Foodie Blogroll code 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.

Now on to this week’s picks!

One of my new favorite blogs is Cherie from Cherie Picked
She describes her blog as Ethical Recipes Reviews Resources Eating. When I review blogs for The Foodie Blogroll, I always read the about pages. I find it is a good way for me to get to know some of the people in the community and even if we never form a really personal relationship, at least I know what kind of people we have in the community. I was really struck by Cherie’s about page and it made me really like her right away. Maybe it was also because she has one of my favorite quotes on her blog as well, a Cree Indian prophecy: ” Only after the last tree has been cut down, only after the last river has been poisoned, only after the last fish has been caught, only then will you find that money cannot be eaten”. Not only this but she gave her opinions on everything from her favorite foods, nature and politics. Her site features simple and delicious fare with flair – I am noticing a lot of the Northwesterners I have met via food blogging share this kind of flair, and it is in moments like this that I wished I lived there. I think I would find many like minded people.

Next pick of the week is Old Timey Dave from Old Time Cider
Now Cider is one of those beverages that I really love, but I know that I have only hit the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what it is really all about. Cider brewing is a very old tradition and I really enjoyed it whilst traveling in Scotland and Ireland – I could order cider on tap, right next to the Guinness. It was dry, crisp and more refreshing than ciders I have tried here in the states. I always wondered who were the people who actually brewed this golden elixir? Well Dave, for one – his focus is on brewing traditional American style hard ciders. He has a lot of links on his site to educate us all about cider. Something I know I am going to enjoy knowing more about. So go over there and wish Dave good luck when he goes to Cider Academy.

Here is an oldie but goodie – Nina from My Easy Cooking
Nina is a blogger from South Africa and I swear she has the yummiest dishes featured on her blog and she makes them look beautiful always for her photos. Her presentation is inspired and I know that every time I get to head over to her blog (not often enough these days) that I am going to drool. With two children, I can tell that she is a very industrious person – she has some of the most aesthetically beautiful dishes in the blogosphere, and manages to do that while caring for her family. I really admire her efforts. I know that many of you are already familiar with Nina’s blog, but for those of you who are not, you definitely need to pay her and her fabulous creations a visit.

Another new to me blog is Tommi or “Rainbow Brown” from Brown Interior
She is a student who enjoys cooking, baking and everything to do with food. She started her own blog so that she could participate in all the great foodie events that are always being hosted all over the internet. I think it is time she join up with the Royal Foodie Joust!
I am drawn to her blog for the same reason I am drawn to so many others – simple food, that looks delicious and appealing and has some unique touches to it and a blogger who adds a bit of their personality to their posts. This is a very down to earth blog full of yummy goodness!

Last but certainly not least is a blog called Diva:Flava by Lynne.
She describes herself as “Not a writer, but an accountant who loves to cook and tell. I prefer crunching recipes in lieu of numbers” – did I mention she really has a way with words? She begun blogging in 1999, before it was even known as blogging, and as her posts began to focus more on food, rather than daily life, she purchased her own domain name and began this food inspired blog. Her blog is a chronicle and outlet of and for her creative and delicious food. Not only does he enjoy cooking, but she is also a dabbler in graphic design, this is apparent from her website design. She loves spicy and uncommon recipes and foods and her recipes really speak to that passion. It is certainly a blog to check out, if not just for the food, the design and the great writing!

So please go visit today’s picks! When you do, be sure to leave them a nice comment and if it is your first time there, let them know that you heard about them via The Foodie Blogroll Finest Foodies Friday!

In Royal Foodie Joust News: The new ingredients have been chosen and they are as follows:

Apricot
Butter
Ginger

Make sure to get those entries in by 10 PM Eastern Standard USA Time on July 1st!

It feels like a very long time since I wrote a post about the winners of the Royal Foodie Joust. I guess that is because the two months prior, I handed the job over to Dharm and Ben to host whilst I was away getting married, honeymooning and gallivanting around. But now, I am back to my regular blogging, and so I have to honor of hosting and announcing the Joust winners again.

There have been some nice changes to the Joust since I last hosted. One, due to popular demand, we changed the voting to a peer vote, meaning that only members of the forum, thus other foodbloggers have the opportunity to vote for their counterparts. This has brought many more participants and very stiff competition to the Joust, making the voting so much harder. I wish I could give an apron to everyone for all the beautiful and tasty entries we recieve each time. The Joust is growing like crazy – with over 30 awesome entries this time around!

Next, my friend Ben over at What’s Cooking? has graciously offered to sponsor the Joust, meaning more prizes for the winners! Ben sponsors the Joust from his Tupperware business and it has been a lot of fun!

Last month’s winner was Elle, of Elle’s New England Kitchen. So not only did Elle receive her own personalized apron, and Tupperware prizes, but she also picked the three ingredients for this month’s challenge. Her picks? Raspberries, Limes and Almonds. We had a wide variety of entries – sweet and savory. To check out the entries for this month, and to enter the next Joust, please join us over on The Leftover Queen/ Foodie Blogroll Forum

This time we are a little late in posting about the winner, because we had an unprecidented tie – in all categories – first, second AND third place. So we just ended the tie breaker polls and it is time to post the winners.

Now for the winners:

First place is awarded to Erin of The Skinny Gourmet with her entry of Almond Crusted Shrimp Tacos with Raspberry Pico de Gallo and Spicy Lime Mayo

Second place is awarded to Maybelle’s Parents of Feeding Maybelle with their entry of
Almond Fried Chicken and Raspberry Sweet Potato Waffles

Third place is awarded to CookinPanda from Flextarian Menu with their entry of Raspberry Filled Almond Baklava with Honey Lime Syrup

CONGRATULATIONS WINNERS!!!!

Thank you everyone for participating in this month’s Royal Foodie Joust and making it a huge success, yet again. Please stay tuned for when I announce Erin’s pick of ingredients for this month’s Joust!

Another Friday, another Finest Foodies Friday! FFF is a weekly Friday post featuring favorites from The Foodie Blogroll! We do this so we can share in the rich diversity of what The Foodie Blogroll has to offer by featuring some of our favorites and some of yours! What is the Foodie Blogroll? It is the fastest growing blogroll for food bloggers and has become a wonderful community to share ideas about all things food related.

The only requirement to be featured here on FFF is to be a member of The Foodie Blogroll and be displaying The Foodie Blogroll code 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.

Now on to this week’s picks!

Rita from Mochachocolata Rita
describes herself as “unbelievably cocky, unreasonably annoying, unbearably boring”. It is hard to wrap your head around how all of those qualities can describe a single person. It also gives you a clue that this is a person that does not take herself too seriously and might be a little quirky – qualities that I admire! Rita lives in Hong Kong which I believe is the official or perhaps unofficial food capital of the world. I have heard it said that you can pretty much eat anything there. It is an experience that I would relish and so by reading her blog, I get to experience a piece of that in a small way. All of this things put together in blog format and you can’t get a more interesting read.

Next is Stephanie from A Year of Crockpotting
This girl just loves her crockpot. Her New Year’s resolution is to cook using her crock pot every single day of 2008. Now I really am impressed by this. Think about it, it would be like saying I will use my cast iron skillet to cook every single day of the year. I have no fear of commitment, but, I just don’t think I could do it. What if you are on vacation? Do you have to bring it with you? Stephanie’s dedication to her crockpot is an amazing thing, and because of it, she has come up with lots of tantalizing recipes for this special cooking tool. So get those crockpots out, wipe off the dust and get cooking!

Speaking of amazing and dedicated people there is Marye whose blog is, Baking Delights
Marye is quite the baker, as her blog title could have informed you. In the kitchen she channels her “inner tart” (her words!). But seriously she really is a great baker. Not only that but she has a huge family – multiple children and grandchildren living under her roof, a roof of a house that she and her husband are restoring. Not only that, but she also used to own and operate a tea room. I really don’t know how she does it all, and does it so well. But here is a clue to her secret. In her own words: “Every time I knead a loaf of bread I am aware that generations of women before me have done the same thing, thinking similar thoughts, dreaming similar dreams, praying similar prayers.” To me, that is just beautiful.

Another blog I really enjoy is Cuisine Quotidienne written by Betty.
A native of Olympia Washington who has been living and raising a family in Southern France. Her blog features everyday French food, something that I know way too little about. I am always intimidated by French food and all the fancy names and accent marks. Many see it as the be all, end all in the Culinary world. French chefs seem unapproachable and slightly menacing, looking down their noses at home cooks. But Betty brings it all down a notch, to the basics. She is a home cook, in France, that really gives you the feel for what regular people in France do when it is time to put the food on the table.

This week it is appropriate to feature Elle from Elle’s New England Kitchen. She is the winner of last month’s Royal Foodie Joust and therefore won herself a personalized apron, some nice Tupperware prizes and also the chance to pick the ingredients for this month’s Joust. Elle has been focusing on some of her favorite flavors of the summer and limes and raspberries feature prominently. Her dishes are always fresh and full of flavor and her pictures are something to drool over. I honestly don’t know how she does it, being a mom to 4 kids and 6 pets! If you haven’t been to Elle’s blog yet, it is high time you get there.

So please go visit today’s picks! When you do, be sure to leave them a nice comment and if it is your first time there, let them know that you heard about them via The Foodie Blogroll Finest Foodies Friday!

And in other RFJ news, you still have time to vote for your favorite Foodie Jouster! The polls have been up for a week now, but voting goes until tonight! So go support your fellow food bloggers by voting for your favorite dish. If you are not yet a member of the forum, be sure to register today, so that you can vote in the next round, or perhaps, if you dare, present an entry of your own!

Here we are, time for this week’s installment of FFF. It is a weekly Friday post featuring favorites from The Foodie Blogroll! It is a small 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 here is to be a member of The Foodie Blogroll and that you are displaying The Foodie Blogroll icon on your page.

If you are not yet a member, but you have a food blog and would like to join, please click here.
If you have a favorite foodblog on The Foodie Blogroll, that you would like to be featured here, please join us over on The Leftover Queen/ Foodie Blogroll Forum, and post your favorite foodblogs here.

Now on to this week’s picks!

Today I am going to start off with Susan of Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy
(don’t you just love that name? It is so vivid and makes you want to lick your fingers out of instinct!)
Susan is a professional musician who loves to cook. She also comes from a long line of Italian home cooks and I think growing up in that environment just lends to generations of people who adore food! Susan is no exception there. She talks about her musical history in her most recent post – The Daring Baker’s Challenge!

Next is Deborah from Taste and TellShe is like me, and so many of us out there – an experimental cook. She has trouble cooking the same recipe more than once, because there is just so much good food out there to try! In order to facilitate this more, she has made a personal goal to blog about one recipe out of her many cookbooks – and invites you to join in her Taste and Tell Cookbook Project

A relative newcomer to The Foodie Blogroll is Farida from AZ Cookbook or Farida’s Azerbaijani Cookbook
The minute I saw her blog for the first time, I was impressed. Not only does she have a whole blog devoted to a cuisine I would love to know more about, but she is very personable and helpful to her readers by answering questions about her national cuisine. She has great step by step instructions paired with beautiful photos of her yummy food! So if you would like to learn more about Azerbaijani Cuisine (and TRUST ME, you DO) – go on over and check out Farida’s blog.

Another blog I am really enjoying these days is Palachinka by Marija.
A beautiful blog with a focus on Serbian Cuisine. This is just another example of how the look of your blog plays an important role -everything from her blog design, photography and food is very clean with a strong attention to detail – so what really stands out when you visit is her food – front and center. There are so many recipes I would love to try.

Last but not least is Roni from GreenLiteBites
She focuses on the light side of food creations, that are low in fat, high in fiber and whole foods. This way of cooking is very near and dear to my heart! Through the recipes featured on her blog she shows us again that just because food is healthy does not mean it isn’t tasty! I also like that she does not use artificial sweeteners or processed foods in her recipes. Her food is just plain old good and good for you.

So please go visit today’s picks! When you do, be sure to leave them a nice comment and if it is your first time there, let them know that you heard about them via Finest Foodies Friday!

Just a quick note! The Royal Foodie Joust competition is underway. You still have until Sunday at 10 PM EST to get your entries in. This month’s featured ingredients are lime, almond and raspberries. Be sure to get your entry in for your chance to win your own personalized apron as well as Tupperware Prizes from Our Sponsor, Ben!

I am all about tradition. Even as a young child, I always enjoyed re-occuring events based on a date, an event, or time. I don’t know what it is about me that just loves a good ritualistic event. Maybe it’s the food. Most likely…Now that I am an adult and getting older and recently married, I have started thinking more about traditions, what they mean to me and what kinds of traditions I want to start for my own family.

When we lived in Vermont, we used to have Roberto’s girls with us every other weekend, and I loved cooking special things when they were there. Especially in anticipation of Movie Night. We would rent a movie and then make fun food, perfect for watching and eating at the same time. Recently Roberto and I decided that we really need to bring back Movie Night – even if only for us. A time to get our jammies on and eat fun foods. We have done this three times so far and it seems to be sticking. We have prepared some really fun finger foods and menus that I want to share in case anyone else has Movie Night and is looking for recipes, or wants to start a Movie Night tradition of their own.

So for our first official movie night, a few months ago, we watched Simply Irresistible. I made Lisa’s Olive Stuffed Cheese Ballsand Curried Deviled Eggs. We also mixed Greek Yogurt with Sumac, Za’atar, Sesame Seeds and Olive Oil and scooped it all up with warm whole wheat pita bread. For dessert we had leftover Key lime pie with strawberries that my mom had sent home with us after a visit. It was a great time. The movie, Simply Irresistible is with Sarah Michelle Gellar. A cooking movie where the emotions she puts in her food while she is cooking, affects those who eat it! Really cute film, especially if you are a die-hard Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan like we are, and therefore are bound to watch anything that has any of the stars from that show in it for all eternity.

The next movie night we had was kind of themed without meaning to be. I had Lentil Koftas with cucumber salad on the menu with a side of Greek style green beans. As we were frying the koftas, I was looking for a plate to put them on, so they would stay warm. Our good friend, Tony had given us a Tagine for a wedding present that he and his partner, Jonathan had carried back with them from a recent trip to Morocco. It had a lid and looked nice, so I decided to use it as a serving platter. Plus I have really been dying to use the Tagine! Don’t worry, I just made Chicken Tagine this weekend – so you will be seeing it in its primary use in a little while!

We ended up getting The Kite Runner as a movie and the theme of the movie really fit well with our menu. The koftas were really great, and I plan on making them again.

I have made the green beans for ages and they were a perfect accompaniment. Recipes to follow. The movie was excellent. It is one of those films that you can’t shrug off for several days. I had read the book and felt the adaptation was perfect.

For our third movie night we really wanted to try Elle’s Mango Buffalo Wings from last month’s Royal Foodie Joust.
I love the spicy and vinegar combination of buffalo wings, but I have never made them at home. When Elle entered the contest last month with a mango buffalo wing, I knew I would love it, so I got the ingredients to make them. They were wonderful, the perfect combination of spice and sweet that I adore with that vinegar hot sauce note. However, the movie, I Am Legend was not a big hit. There is a very bad scene in the movie involving an animal and I just couldn’t take it…I am a big wuss when it comes to these kinds of movies.

However, this one bad movie has not deterred us from continuing the tradition of movie night! Join us for movie night and let us know your best creations!
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