Project Food Blog - Keep Watching!

No, not for me, but for everyone else still involved, because the competition will surely be heating up very soon! Continue to check out Foodbuzz's Project Food Blog to see who the next Food Blog Star will be - there are some fabulous bloggers still in the running and you won't want to miss it.

I want to thank all of my awesome friends for voting for me, but anyone who knows me well knows I'd rather make it on merit over popular vote any day. I also want to thank Kathy Lauer-Williams of the Morning Call for her post urging everyone to vote. I love her and she's done a great job of getting the word out about me since her first article in the paper a year and a half ago. Thanks, Kathy!

Also, my family helped quite a bit last week with the second challenge and I wouldn't have gotten it posted without them. Love you guys!

As for me, last week was quite possibly the worst week ever for me to have been in a competition. I spent Monday morning in the emergency room rather ill and the doctors there discovered some things I need to address. No worries - you know I can't be kept down! So, onward and upward! Hope you'll all keep stopping by.

Project Food Blog Challenge #2 : Time to Vote!

Voting for the Foodbuzz Project Food Blog Challenge #2 is now open from 6AM Pacific Time September 27th through 6PM Pacific Time September 30th.

Click the link to my profile below and vote ~ thank you!

Project Food Blog: Adventures in Moussaka

Moussaka

Moussaka is one of those dishes that I always felt was rather common, but once I made mention of it to friends and family I realized it may not be as common as I thought. I was met with reactions like, "Moose what?" and "Moose caca?" (you can't have 7 kids and not hear that one at least once), but most often it was simply, "What's that?"

What's that, indeed. I myself wasn't 100% sure, having never eaten it and only having read about it or heard of it the same way most Americans have, by watching "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". I knew it was eggplant and bechamel, but hadn't the foggiest notion how it was put together or what it tasted like.

At one time during my adolesence I was surrounded by Greek-Americans that were all friends of my mother's. She owned a small re-sale boutique and right next door to her shop was Nick's. Oh yes, funny as it sounds because of the commonplace moniker, there really was a Greek restaurant named such right there. My mother and the proprietors, the Bozakis family, became fast friends and mom, who also loved to cook, was taught much about Greek cuisine from the real deal, but never moussaka.

I'd thought about making it from time to time, but it seemed out of reach and difficult and far too time-consuming for a person as busy as myself. Triple layers meant triple preparations and the question as to authenticity always plagued me. I don't like making dishes from other cultures that aren't true to tradition and I wanted to be certain.

I set out to research as in-depth as possible, first with the cookbooks I own and secondly on the internet. What I found only confused me further. Greece isn't the only country responsible for moussaka, in fact, the true origins are Arabic in nature and many countries across the Middle East seem to have a version all their own. What I was looking for, though, was the Greek version.

After I found several recipes I liked among a veritable plethora of them, I was still not satisfied that I'd never had it so I scoured the phone book and started making calls to local Greek restaurants. Each call left me wondering if I would ever find it locally. Finally I hit on Yianni's Taverna, and I struck gold. They whipped up some and it was picked up via take-out.

Yianni's Taverna, Bethlehem, Pa

My first taste of real moussaka was a lightbulb moment ... an "Ohhh, so that's what it is!" Pure bliss. The way it was made was exactly as I'd decided I would make mine, a layer of potato on the bottom, topped with rich meat sauce and covered in thick and creamy bechamel. I nearly wanted to photograph it and pass it off, but it was so good there was no stopping myself. My 6 year-old son ate with me and he loved it every bit as much as I did. This part means if you're in the Lehigh Valley, you need to stop by Yianni's Taverna for beautiful atmosphere and fabulous, authentic Greek food.

Having finally had moussaka and and understanding then for what I was really making, I set off to duplicate it. The recipes, though, were a challenge. There were differences of opinion on which cheese to use, whether or not to include potato, how to layer the ingredients and so on. I compared and read and compared some more and then finally decided on how best to prepare it.

My first batch used ground lamb and canned tomatoes. I don't cook with lamb and haven't since culinary school so the odor was something to get used to, but the flavor was divine. I paired it with spices and wine and fresh herbs and cooked it until the tomatoes were tender and falling apart. I salted and drained the eggplant slices and whipped up a bechamel worthy of its origins. Layered together and baked for an hour, the result was absolute perfection; I know because my 6 year-old told me so. He said it was just as good as the one we'd brought home.

Not convinced that I knew exactly what I was doing, I made it again; this time with ground beef and tomatoes from the garden and a blend of Kefalotyri and Kasseri cheeses. I repeated the potato on the bottom because I enjoyed it so much. The thin layer of potatoes soaked up the rich juices from the meat sauce and were so tender and delicious they would almost be enough by themselves. The second batch, with nutmeg laced bechamel and lighter flavored ground beef was every bit as wonderful as the others had been.

Now that I've eaten it thrice and cooked it twice I can say with complete certainty that I will be making it again and again. Even if it's time-intensive, it really is so worth it. Here is the recipe I settled on:

Perfect Moussaka

Moussaka

Makes 1 9x13 pan

Printable Recipe

6 tablespoons olive oil - divided

1 medium onion - chopped
3 cloves garlic - minced

2 pounds ground lamb or ground beef

1 large eggplant (aubergine if you live outside the U.S.A.) - evenly and thinly sliced lengthwise - do not peel

3 medium potatoes - peeled and thinly sliced

1 teaspoons salt plus more for sprinkling on eggplant
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
15 ounces tomato puree
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1 Tablespoon freshly snipped oregano
1/4 cup freshly snipped parsley
1/2 cup red wine
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

4 cups milk
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
8 ounces Kefalotyri cheese - shredded (or Romano or Parmesan)
2 Tablespoons bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly oil a 9 x 13-inch baking pan and set aside.

• Salt eggplant slices well and set aside in a colander to drain. The salt will help the eggplant lose any bitterness and will also keep it from absorbing too much oil during frying.
• Heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat and add oil. Stir in onion and garlic and cook until onion begins to turn translucent. Add ground beef or lamb and break up as you cook so it is very finely minced. Drain grease well.
• Add tomatoes, wine, spices, herbs, salt and pepper and stir well. Cook over low heat for half an hour or until sauce begins to thicken. Set aside and clean pan.
• Squeeze out eggplant and pat dry with paper towels. Heat oil in the same frying pan and add 3 Tablespoons oil - fry potato slices until very lightly browned and drain well. Fry eggplant slices until very lightly browned and drain well. *You can alternately bake or grill the eggplant for a healthier version.
• Layer the potato slices in the bottom of the prepared baking pan and top with another layer of eggplant. Spread the meat sauce evenly over the eggplant and top with a last layer of eggplant. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of shredded cheese and set aside.
• Make the bechamel: Heat milk until just hot and set aside.
• Melt butter in a medium saucepan over low heat and add flour. Stir until smooth and cook several minutes.
• Pour milk into roux in a thin stream and whisk constantly until milk starts to thicken.
• Whisk eggs until light and add a cup of hot milk sauce to them and stir briskly so the eggs do not cook.
• Pour into milk and roux and continue cooking until sauce is thickened.
• Add nutmeg, salt and 1 cup shredded cheese and stir until cheese is melted.
• Pour bechamel over top eggplant layer and spread evenly over all to cover completely.
• Sprinkle with bread crumbs and remaining cheese and bake for one hour.
• Let stand for 20 to 30 minutes before cutting.

Project Food Blog Challenge #1 : Get the Vote Out!

Yesterday was my post for the first Project Food Blog challenge and today, we vote! The popular vote helps contestants move forward in the event they are not pushed ahead by the judges, so every vote counts!

Visit my profile at Foodbuzz'z Project Food Blog and click to vote!

Thank you!

Project Food Blog: Cooking with Anne in 7 Easy Steps

In the 5 years I’ve been officially blogging about food, I’ve been asked time and again why I blog and exactly what I blog about. I’ve answered a time or two, but I don’t believe I’ve ever really gotten into that here.

The ‘why’ is very much the same as many food bloggers; I love food and, even more so, I love to share food. Cooking is cathartic to me and when I need a pick-me-up, the pantry is the first place I turn. I also love to create, but it’s sharing those creations and having others enjoy them that brings me true happiness.

Beyond that, and the original reason I began food blogging, was the desire to have my own family food history written down for my kids. I loved our family recipes, the ones handed down from generation to generation, and always wanted to know where each recipe originated or when it was eaten and why it was made so often, but was left instead with a stack of yellowed index cards held together with a rubber band and no history at all attached to the food my ancestors shared. It was a void I didn’t want my own children to have, so I started writing it all down - in a pen & paper journal first, then on the internet.

Once I started meeting other bloggers, I was totally hooked, and adding regular readers to the mix only made it that much more fun and challenging.

So, as an official contestant of the Foodbuzz Project Food Blog I will answer the first challenge, which is to share how my blog is unique and why I should win the grand prize of $10,000 and the coveted title of the next ‘Food Blog Star’ in 7 short points:



1. I’m informative: I am a person plagued with a ‘must-know-why’ attitude that pervades nearly every aspect of my life, and food is no exception. From where things are grown to who was the first to decide to eat them to how to best cook and serve them, I aim to know it all and I try to impart that to my readers.

Posts about growing black beans, cooking fiddleheads, which zucchini blossoms are which and step-by-steps to making stocks and sauces or crafting homemade pasta riddle this blog and always will with one exception over some others - I don’t know it all and I love to learn more!

2. Personal family stories: One of my favorite foodie things is reading stories about food and recipes and the history behind them, so I tend to share my own food connections with others. After all, that’s what blogs were intended to be, yes? A personal web log of whatever one had a mind to log. I try and keep it real here, and the family stories are not only fun for others to read, but also wonderful for me to re-live while writing. Grandma’s Confetti Cookies, Great Grandma’s Rabbit and Mom’s Fried Chicken are just a few of the tales I’ve had the pleasure to re-tell.

3. Original recipes or twists on classics: I try very hard not to re-post recipes from elsewhere. I have done it, and always give credit where credit is due, but I like to offer up something that you can’t find just anywhere, so I develop my own recipes or spin classics on their heads to keep things fresh and different. Banana Pear Bread, St. Andrè Dessert Tart and Simon and Garfunkel Roast Chicken are 3 of my favorite originals.



4. I am tenacious: When life gives me lemons, I don’t just make lemonade, I make 5-layer lemon chiffon cake topped with chocolate ganache and crumb-coated with hazelnuts - and why not?

In 2007, just after my second year of blogging and 6 months into blogging for Disney at Family.com, absolute disaster struck our family when my husband fell 3 stories from the roof of the building he was working on. It was a very dark and difficult time for us that continues to this day and my blogging outlet, though it was about food, proved to be an invaluable source of solace and the perfect outlet for all the many feelings I was going through. I kept blogging here making the most of things and came out stronger as a result.

5. Attention to detail: I am a bit of a perfectionist, so if there is a misspelling or grammatical error, an incorrect ingredient amount, or a link that’s not working, I try my best to fix it and make things as accessible and easy to read as possible. While I love to write and love to talk, I know the best way to keep a reader is to keep it short and sweet, so my posts often reflect that with a simple header, photo and recipe.

6. Humor: Life is funny, and even when it isn’t I can somehow draw the humor out of any given situation. I try to fit that into my blog as often as possible without being offensive, and I’m pretty sure most times I hit the mark fairly well. If not, oh well, at least I got a laugh out of it.

7. The last thing I have in my corner is also the best thing: I do all of this blogging here, on A Thousand Soups and recipe development at Family.com, with 7 children still at home. They were the impetus for this whole blogging career I’ve begun and they continue to be the thing that motivates me. Whether it’s because I spend a lot of time simply cooking for and feeding them or because they are my finest critics and biggest fans, they will forever be the reason I do what I do and the driving force behind my always wanting to be better.

So, there you have it, Cooking with Anne in 7 Easy Steps. I look forward to the remainder of this competition and wish all my fellow contestants the very best!

Foodbuzz 24,24,24: There's No Place Like Home

What's the number one thing kids miss while away from home at college? The food. My oldest daughter, in her second year at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, can attest to that and tells me so often. Many times she calls home to find that we're having one of her favorite foods for dinner and she'll say, “I want to come home!”

Cassidy is one of my biggest fans, and as such she talks to her friends about my blog and my work quite often. She told me that her friends wanted to come home with her and have dinner. I wanted to do just that for quite some time and when it came time to submit a proposal for the January Foodbuzz 24,24,24 Event, I decided that a dinner based on comfort foods stepped-up a bit would be just the thing. We were all excited when I found my proposal was accepted!

I had Cassidy ask her friends ahead of time what their favorite comfort foods were and also which food they missed the most while away from home. There were the expected answers; mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese and meatloaf, but I didn't want these kids to come here for the same-old-same-old, whether it was comforting or not, so I did things a little differently than usual and planned my menu around their favorites, but all with a twist

The Guests: L to R - Jamie, Chase, Jillian, Julianne, Artie, Shauna and Cassidy. Aren't they the best looking bunch of kids ever? I highly suspect those two handsome boys were the source of all the laughter.

The guest list was all sophomores – six from my daughter's college and one from another:

• Cassidy (my daughter) is a Pre-Med major originally from Bethlehem, Pa and her favorite comfort food is meatloaf.
• Jamie Volansky is a Communication Design major originally from Hunterdon County, New Jersey and her favorite comfort food is chocolate.
• Chase Armand is a Communication Design major originally from Malvern, Pa and his favorite comfort food is chicken pot pie.
• Jillian Mirenzi is a Theater major originally from Wilkes-Barre, Pa and her favorite comfort food is pierogies.
• Julianne Spadine is an Elementary Education major at West Chester University and she is originally from Springville, Pa.
• Artie Dowdy is a Special Education major who 'hails from Landenberg, Pa'.
• Shauna Kane is a Biology major originally from Tamaqua and her favorite comfort food is macaroni and cheese.

View Larger Map

We covered eastern Pa and a little bit of New Jersey fairly well.

There are two guests I didn't have favorites for simply because they were late additions, or stand-ins, rather. They turned out to be great substitutes, though and I'm very glad they both came.

The night started with my 'servers' (a.k.a. Declan and Erin, two of my kids) seating everyone and getting drink orders. They took orders all night, making sure we weren't sending out food that anyone didn't want, and the smaller children even entertained from time-to-time. Dinner and a floor show, what more could you ask for?

The first course was two different appetizers, Halushki Pierogi and Macaroni and Cheese Soufflés with Bacon. The pierogi were made for Jillian, with a filling closer to Halushki (cabbage and noodles) than the traditional filling as one of Jillian's most-missed foods was Halushki.

Jillian with the Halushki Pierogi and Macaroni and Cheese Souffle with Bacon

The Macaroni and Cheese Soufflés with Bacon were something I devised completely on my own. Shawna's favorite is mac and cheese and I wanted to do something a little more than just plain old mac and cheese, so I thought a soufflé would be good. I was dead-on, I'm told – that particular dish was an overall favorite for the evening.

Next up was the soup which was a Roasted Red Pepper and Cheddar with simple rolls. I didn't get much back when the dishes returned, and Artie said it was one of his favorites.

Shauna with Roasted Red Pepper and Cheddar Soup

The salad for the evening was based on one of the guests who was not able to come. He said his favorite comfort food was macaroni salad, so I served Pasta with Pesto, Green Beans and Fresh Mozzarella. That was one of Jamie's favorites for the night.

Julianne and Pasta with Pesto, Green Beans and Fresh Mozzarella

Then we served Triple Berry Sorbet. Yes, real sorbet. I know it's not considered a comfort food, but I also know these particular guests were looking for a little more than just home-cooking. I added this in and everyone liked it. The servers were back in the kitchen asking for their own, so I knew it was good.

Triple Berry Sorbet

The entreé was rather large; Panko and Romano Crusted Chicken Filets, Mini-Meatloaves Stuffed with Spinach and Mozzarella, Chicken Pot Pies with Puff Pastry, Mashed Golden Baby Potatoes, Roasted Baby Vegetables and Chile Relleno Corn Pudding. I think by this point the guests were all a little full, but as far as I could tell – between them and my own family – the chicken and meatloaves were the stand-out here. My second-oldest daughter, Megan, was playing the tri-role of server, photographer and guest – covering the empty spot left by the 8th guest – and she was in the kitchen asking me to send her entreé out with smaller portions because she was so stuffed at that moment.

Cassidy and a little bit of everything!

Chase really likes pot pie

Full or not, there was dessert to be had, so without delay the dessert tray of Chocolate-Crusted Chocolate Tarts, Chocolate Covered Cheesecakes and Carrot Cakes was set out for everyone to choose from. As can be expected, the two chocolate desserts were the hits and at that point I suspect everyone was ready to burst.

Jamie and the triple-threat

I didn't make my way out of the kitchen all too often; both from wanting the guests to be able to enjoy themselves without 'mom' checking on them and also the fact that I'd just rather stay in the background and watch everyone have a good time. From what I could tell (lots of hysterical laughter going on), I think they did.

I told them I'd have a dinner party a week if I could afford it and I do hope to do this again sometime soon for the kids who missed out this time. I really enjoyed meeting Cassidy's friends, and being able to feed people, no matter who they are, is always fun for me, so for all of your thank-yous, kids – I must say, Thank You, back.

A couple other Thank Yous go to all of my children for being a part of this and helping out with things; to my mother-in-law, Pat for loaning us several very necessary items without which the night would have been a disaster (read, tablecloth, napkins, chairs and sorbet cups) and several of my friends who answered polls for me, helping to set the menu.

The Recipes
------------------
One thing you know if you read here often is that I am a non-recipe type cook. I have them and I post them, but I rarely ever actually use them. So, when it comes time to share with others what I've created in my kitchen, sitting down to type it all out can be painstaking.

I've linked recipes that I've already posted or gotten from elsewhere (some have slight changes made that I'm hoping are obvious: the carrot cakes were done in large muffin tins, the pot pie has a puff pastry top-crust etc.) but here are the rest. For the roasted baby vegetables, that was a simple toss with olive oil, garlic and rosemary before being baked until done. The chicken was simple filets in a basic breading using equal parts panko and grated Romano cheese. I've done my very best to get it all down, but if you have questions, please don't be afraid to ask.
-------------------

Halushki Pierogies
Makes 24
Printable Recipe

Pierogi Dough

2 cups flour
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup water

Make a well in the center of the flour. Add eggs, water and salt into well. Mix together from the outside in and knead until smooth. Cover and let stand for 10 minutes.
Divide dough into workable pieces and roll thinly with a rolling pin or pasta machine. Cut with a 3” biscuit cutter and fill each with desired filling before folding in half and pinching edges to seal. Drop into boiling salted water and cook until they float. Fry in butter or serve as-is.

Halushki Filling

½ head cabbage - sliced thinly
1 large onion - sliced thinly
½ stick butter
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups seasoned mashed potatoes

Heat butter in a heavy skillet and add onion and cabbage. Cook until soft and golden and all liquid has evaporated. Season with salt. Combine mashed potatoes and cabbage mixture until well blended. Use to stuff pierogi skins.

Mini Meatloaves Stuffed with Spinach and Mozzarella
Serves 12
Printable Recipe

1 pound lean ground beef
1 pound lean ground pork
1 package stuffing mix
2 eggs
½ cup milk
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
12 large spinach leaves
½ cup marinara sauce
Mix together ground meats, stuffing mix, eggs and milk. Grease 12 large muffin cups. Press half of the meatloaf mixture into each muffin cup. Top each with a spinach leaf and mozzarella. Top with remaining meatloaf mixture and back in a 350 degree F oven for 25-30 minutes. Spread each meatloaf with marinara sauce and bake for another 5 minutes.

Macaroni and Cheese Soufflés
Serves 8
Printable Recipe

3 eggs – separated
½ cup cooked acini di pepe
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
2 cups finely shredded cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon salt
2 slices bacon – cooked crisp and crumbled

Heat butter in a saucepan until melted. Add flour and mix well. Pour in milk slowly, whisking all the while. Blend egg yolks well and temper with the milk mixture. Once yolks are tempered, add back into the remainder of the milk and whisk well until thickened. Remove from heat and add salt and cheese. Cool to room temperature. Once cooled, whip egg whites until stiff. Stir bacon bits and acini pasta into the cheese sauce. Fold egg whites carefully into pasta and cheese. Pour into well-greased ½ cup capacity soufflé dishes. Set filled dishes into a cake pan and add water to the pan until it reaches halfway up the sides of the soufflés. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 30-40 minutes or until puffed and golden.

Chile Relleno Corn Pudding
Serves 8
Printable Recipe

1 stick butter - melted
1 cup sour cream
1 egg
2 cups corn kernels
2 cups creamed corn
1 box corn muffin mix
1 small can diced green chiles - drained
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Combine all and pour into a greased casserole dish. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 30-40 minutes, or until golden on top.

Triple Berry Sorbet
Makes 6 cups
Printable Recipe

3 cups frozen mixed blueberries, raspberries and blackberries
2 cups water
2/3 cup sugar

Blend everything until smooth. Strain to remove any seeds. Put into a 9x13 cake pan and freeze. Scrape with a spoon and put into small dishes for serving.

Foodbuzz Publisher Community Launches

I recently wrote about Foodbuzz and how much I love this community of foodies. Today is the official launch of Foodbuzz. Check out this press release for more info:


LAUNCH OF GLOBAL FOODBUZZ BLOGGER COMMUNITY
LEVERAGES REAL-PEOPLE, REAL-TIME POWER OF FOOD PUBLISHING

San Francisco – October 13, 2008: Foodbuzz, Inc., officially inaugurates its food blogger community with more than 1,000 blog partners, a global food blogging event and an online platform that captures the real-people, real-time power of food publishing in every corner of the world. At launch, the Foodbuzz community ranks as one of the top-10 Internet destinations for food and dining (Quantcast), with bloggers based in 45 countries and 863 cities serving up daily food content.

“Food bloggers are at the forefront of reality publishing and the dramatic growth of new media has redefined how food enthusiasts access tasty content,” said Doug Collister, Executive Vice President of Foodbuzz, Inc. “Food bloggers are the new breed of local food experts and at any minute of the day, Foodbuzz is there to help capture the immediacy of their hands-on experiences, be it a memorable restaurant meal, a trip to the farmers market, or a special home-cooked meal.”

Foodbuzz is the only online community with content created exclusively by food bloggers and rated by foodies. The site offers more than 20,000 pieces of new food and dining content weekly, including recipes, photos, blog posts, videos and restaurant reviews. Members decide the “tastiness” of each piece of content by voting and “buzz” the most popular posts to the top of the daily menu of submissions. Foodbuzz currently logs over 13 million monthly page views and over three million monthly unique visitors.

“Our goal is to be the number-one online source of quality food and dining content by promoting the talent, enthusiasm and knowledge of food bloggers around the globe,” said Ben Dehan, founder and CEO of Foodbuzz, Inc.

The Foodbuzz blogger community is growing at a rate of 40 percent per month driven by strong growth in existing partner blogs and the addition of over 100 new blogs per month. “The Foodbuzz.com Web site is like the stock of a great soup. The Web site provides the base or backbone for bloggers to interact as a community, contribute content, and have that content buzzed by their peers,” said Mr. Dehan.

Global Blogging Event Demonstrating the talent and scope of the Foodbuzz community, 24 Meals, 24 Hours, 24 Blogs offered online food enthusiasts an international, virtual street festival of food and diversity. The new feature showcased blog posts from 24 Foodbuzz partner bloggers chronicling events occurring around the globe during a 24 hour period and included:

Mid-Autumn Festival Banquet (New York, NY)
The "Found on Foodbuzz" 24-Item Tasting Menu (San Francisco, CA)
Aussie BBQ Bonanza – Celebrating Diversity (Sydney, Australia)
The Four Corners of Carolina BBQ Road Trip (Charleston, SC)
Criminal Tastes – An Illegal Supper (Crested Butte, CO)
From Matambre to Empanadas: An Argentine Dinner (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
A Sweet Trompe l’oeil (Seattle, WA)

“24 Meals, 24 Hours, 24 Blogs” captures the quality and unique local perspective of our food bloggers and shared it with the world,” said Ryan Stern, Director of the Foodbuzz Publisher Community. “It illustrates exactly what the future of food publishing is all about – real food, experienced by real people, shared real-time.”

About Foodbuzz, Inc.

Based in San Francisco, Foodbuzz, Inc., launched its beta Web site, foodbuzz.com, in 2007. In less than a year, Fooduzz.com and its community of over 1,000 exclusive partner food blogs have grown into an extended online property that reaches more than three million users.

Have You Caught the Foodbuzz?

I have belonged to many online food communities, and still do, but I haven't found one that I like quite so much as Foodbuzz. With all the foodie communities out there, that's saying something. Do a simple search and you'll find sites that cater to foodies by country and region, foodies who blog, foodies who share just recipes, foodies devoted to restaurant reviews and on and on.

Foodbuzz combines all of those aspects into one and they do it in a way that keeps people coming back for more. I've made friends with other foodies that I would never have met if not for Foodbuzz.

Foodbuzz is not just for food bloggers, in fact, Foodbuzz is for foodies from all walks of life and all food interests. There are foodies there that don't have blogs at all; foodies that love to eat; foodies that love to eat out and review restaurants; foodies that simply love to read about food.

So, if you love food in any way, Foodbuzz is for you. I've been there since December, 2007 and I absolutely love everything about it. Sign-up is simple and painless and you'll be making foodie friends in mere minutes! Go have a look and see if you don't think Foodbuzz is the best thing since ... well, sliced bread.

The Omnivore's Hundred

I caught this from two of my Foodbuzz friends, DogHill Kitchen and Cajun Chef Ryan. This is a list of "100 things that I think every good omnivore should have tried at least once in their life. The list includes fine food, strange food, everyday food and even some pretty bad food - but a good omnivore should really try it all" from Andrew Wheeler, co-author of Very Good Taste, a British food blog.

Rules are:

1) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
2) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.

I think for a mom of 7 who has never been out of the country (except once to drive across Ontario) and with very limited means, I've gotten a few good ones out of the way (culinary school helped). I don't drink much at all, so many of those type are crossed off. I like this list - it gives me some new ideas for dishes I'd like to try and posts I'll be making!

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp (Once you've seen the shore of Lake Huron littered with dead ones - yuck.)
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. Peanut butter and jelly sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries (Wild raspberries on South Mountain and mulberries everywhere!)
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper - not a whole one, at least.
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (I've had Courvasier and cigars - but separate!)
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal (Just the burger alone is enough!)
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin (Edible, yes - but in what?)
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis (I don't care if my ancestors are Scots - I'm not doing it, and you can't make me.)
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini (Just caviar - no blini)
73. Louche absinthe (Pastis is close ... right?)
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake