Sisterhood Is Powerful

The wonderful Rachel from The Essential Rhubarb Pie gave me a Sisterhood Award a bit ago. How great, because I do think of her as a Sister Blogger. We started blogging less than two weeks apart and somehow, and luckily for me, we found each other. I take these things very seriously, so it took me some time to think about who I wanted to pass it on to.

I have some pretty great bloggers on this list, with some newish and some oldish blogs. Each blogger lets us into her cooking and real life in a way that’s interesting and often encouraging and inspiring. That's true for Rachel too!

The award is for our blogging sisters who show great attitude/gratitude.

The Rules for the recipient:
1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate up to 10 blogs which show great attitude and/or gratitude
3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog, or sending them an email.
5. Remember to link to the person from whom you received your award.

These are my choices for The Sisterhood Award:

Believe me when I tell you that Michelle is a darling gal and gives wonderful reports on lots of NY eateries on Taste As You Go. I love hearing what she has to say as she goes to lots of different fun events with her young (to me) friends. She never holds back if she’s disappointed, but she’s not overly snarky either. (I guess I’m trying to learn from her.) She has some lovely recipes, as well.

Bakerella is an inspired baker and a fantastic blogger. She went WILD with Easter treats, including many varieties of Easter lollypops. The sheep ones are the cutest things I’ve ever seen outside of real sheep. She did a series of riveting blog posts on visiting the the Pioneer Woman , which showed such admiration and, yes, sisterhood that she’s a natural for this award. I love that during a problem with her doughnut making, she wrote HELP in the flour.

Laurie’s blog, Dalla Mia Cucina, is a wonderful resource for original recipes. If we ARE what we eat, we also ARE what we cook. Laurie seems to be a really nice person from the way she writes about her recipes. Plus she must spend tons of time on her beautiful pictures, which make you want to jump right into the page and taste her food.

You can tell that Deeba Rajpal, Passionate About Baking, isn’t just passionate about baking. She’s passionate about blogging too. Her pictures, her baking projects and other cooking, as well, are imbued with an enthusiasm that she loves to share. She enjoys being part of the blogging community and I really enjoy her blog. You can find many of her pictures here too.

I love Catherine's blog, The Dish. She is a grand cook, contest-enterer and winner, and slightly kooky all-around fun blogger. Her pictures of hunky males compete with her food pix. I’m not sure which are more delicious.

Tracy is awesome. Maybe it’s her Rock ‘n Roll experience that equips her for success in cooking contests, but she seems to know how to put dishes together and make what people want. Her stage presence probably doesn’t hurt. She’s also a very caring mom and friend, which comes across beautifully in her blog, Rah Cha Chow.

Brilliant Blogs

Nikki from Nik Snacks gave me a lovely award – Brillante Weblog. Thank you, Nikki! Right back at you!

I’ve been reading lots of blogs lately and I’ve found some really exceptional ones that I want to pass on this Brillante Weblog award to.

Food Stories’ Helen Graves makes all kind of wonderful food - oven baked falafel and Watermelon and Feta Salad with Poppy Seeds, while trying to eat local and organic whenever possible. This recipe and picture alone are reason to recognize her.

The Constables Larder is Giff Constable’s and Lisl Dunlop’s blog about food and wine. They love to cook and write about it interestingly. Their contribution to Foodbuzz’s 24, 24, 24 event was pretty impressive. I particularly loved how they served the soup and this recipe.

Luna Pier Cook is an cool blog from Dave Liske in Michigan. I found him from his thoughtful post on Starbuck’s problems with dipper wells. He writes about all aspects of Michigan’s food community, including this impressive offering.

Simply Gluten-Free is a blog about gluten-free eating and cooking, but that’s not why I like it. I like it for the wonderful recipes, which certainly don’t seem as if they form part of a special diet. Mexican Chocolate Bark sounds and looks fantastic. I love that she makes homemade marshmallows for Christmas presents. And a Pomosa is my kind of cocktail!

And just for laughs, I present Cake Wrecks. Jen posts hilarious pictures of cakes that the blog’s title describes well. Here are some posts about orders gone wrong; a creepy baby cake and the first cake wreck that Jen wrote about. Great stuff.

Blogging Awards - To And From

Jen at Real Good Taste was kind enough to give me, not one, but TWO awards. THANKS, Jen! I really, really appreciate it. The first one is the Arte y Pico award. I love being part of the blogging community and let’s face it, this picture is really cool!

The rules for the Arte y Pico Award:
1) Award five blogs that contribute to the blogging community through creativity, design, and interesting material, regardless of language.
2) Name each of the five blog authors and provide a link to his or her blog.
3) Award recipients must show the Arte y Pico Award image and the name of the award-giving blog author, as well as the award-giving blog author’s blog link.
4) Award recipients must provide a link to the Arte y Pico blog.
5) Award recipients must show these rules.

I would like to pass this on to the following fantastic bloggers:

Dhanngit from Dhanngit’s Kitchen. Her food is fabulous. She emphasizes fresh, locally available ingredients and cooks with a marvelous French, and sometimes Asian, twist (my favorite combination). The details of her hectic life in the south of France (ahhhhhhhhh, the SOUTH of FRANCE…need I say more?) are fascinating. And her pictures are always glorious representations of her wonderful recipes.

Cynthia’s Tastes Like Home introduces us to all kinds of international and Caribbean dishes, including many from her homeland of Guyana. I love how she gives us a piece of herself with every recipe, including many interesting stories from her childhood and her painstaking photography is beautiful.


No list for special blogs that “contribute to the blogging community through creativity” would be complete without Emiline’s Sugar Plum. The operative word here is original. Her own, invented recipes range from the sublime to the…more sublime. Where she gets some of these ideas in her newly highlighted head, I don’t know, but I’m just glad she does.

Costas the Greek’s I Love Olive Oil Blog is dedicated to one thing – fine olive oil. He tastes prodigious amounts of different oils from around the world, because, he says, “A fine extra virgin olive oil can transform the most ordinary ingredients into a sublime culinary experience”. I admire his skill in reporting every little nuance of its flavor. (I personally think Spanish is the best…but never mind.)

Mae Gabriel’s Rice And Noodles is a blog I’ve recently discovered with exquisite pictures. Her French style "Macarons" are a thing of beauty. Her front page is always a magnificent photograph and then you click on "Info/Comments” to get the recipe and more information.

The next award bestowed on me by Jen was the Yummy Award Blog.

I’m passing it on to some blogs with great food, great information and one that’s really unusual…but wonderful:

The goes to The Essential Rhubarb Pie.
Rachel is a food-loving blogger and chronicler of what she eats and bakes. We hear about the meals for her finicky husband (who doesn't have one of those?) and their special dinners out. Her co-workers are lucky enough to be at the receiving end of regular treats from her kitchen, plus she loves horsies.

The goes to Fruit Species.
This is where I go to learn about strange and wonderful exotic fruits. The Great Morinda is ugly, the Pulasan fascinating. Fruity
does a great job on them all.

The goes to We Are Never Full.
Besides the name, which I love, Amy & Jonny’s blog is full of recipes, interesting posts on different food topics and lots of food fun and great pictures.

The goes to Suspect and Fugitive.

Rakka is a brilliant artist who fashions works of art (many of them wonderful portraits) out of food stuffs. Amy Poehler was done in poultry seasoning; John Oates in cheese; Friedrich Nietzsche’s visage was created from tahini and Stephen Colbert, made from blackberries, is also worth a look. Rakka is seriously strange and immensely talented.