food bloggers

Crushing on Funny Girl Bev Weidner of Bev Cooks

Our crush on food blogger Bev Weidner, of Bev Cooks runs deep. She wows us with her cooking, and entertains us with her sassiness and unabashed goofiness. Plus, she’s been a friend since the very first issue of FoodieCrush magazine when she showcased her wit and sensibilities when she authored our foodiecentric-Mad Libs-style feature.

We admire her candor and excitement for life, which is deeply rooted in her writing and photography. Not to mention the woman has killer taste in tunes. She also has a knack for taking cute photos of her twins and creating hysterical quote captions for them on Instagram where her motto is, “I change food and cook diapers. Wait.”

Just so you know, looking at photos of Bev’s twins will give you serious baby fever. You’ve been warned.

Bev originally hails from Little Rock, Arkansas, but in 2004, she followed a boy to Kansas City, and she hasn’t looked back. She confesses she didn’t always love cooking.” I remember sitting in my (then) boyfriend’s basement apartment about 10 years ago, pouring a jar of janky pasta sauce over gummy, lumpy spaghetti and thinking, ‘What the h, man. I can do better than this.'”continue to the recipe… about Crushing on Funny Girl Bev Weidner of Bev Cooks

Friday Faves

Smudge was bound and determined to get some flowers in the ground. We compromised. It’s what mothers learn to do. I’m nearly an expert at this point.

While my man was building raised beds in hopes to reinvigorate our woefully sorrowful garden (per my subliminal request aka outing his honey-do list in last week’s post), Smudge and I went to work.

Why did it take my 10 year old’s begging for me to put pretty petals in front of our faces? Lesson learned.

This weekend I’m in Washington, D.C. speaking on a panel at the IACP Conference—short code for the International Association of Culinary Professionals Conference. The panel discussion is The Blurred Lines of Blogging (more info about it here) and will be held on Saturday from 4-5:30 pm. If you’re at the conference, come by and say, “Hey!” and I’ll introduce you to my man Abe.

During the flight here, I devoured this book I mentioned a few weeks ago, and so when I get home, there’s going to be some serious overhauling in the casa. I’m feeling lighter already.continue to the recipe… about Friday Faves

Dynamic Duos: Food Blogger Power Couples, Part 2

Last week in Part 1 of this two part series, we brought you four food blogger couples who inspire us to grab our significant other and get cookin’. See Part 1 here.

This week we’ve got four more couples who totally rock in the kitchen. Whether it’s just a hobby, or a full-time affair, these lovebirds are churning out some awesome recipes, cookbooks, and even a specific album to go with their brownies.

They have our attention — read on to find out why they should have yours!

continue to the recipe… about Dynamic Duos: Food Blogger Power Couples, Part 2

Dynamic Duos: Food Blogger Power Couples, Part 1

We love learning about culinary power couples, and after featuring food blogger stalwarts Sonja and Alex (A Couple Cooks) and Maria and Josh (Two Peas & Their Pod), we couldn’t help but dig around for some more. These dynamic duos have helped pave the way for additional fresh talent, proving the couple that cooks (or blogs, or food styles, or photographs) together stays together.

Today’s post is the first of a two-part series. Circle back again next Wednesday to see the rest of the gang.

And take this as truth, blogging isn’t just for one anymore. These couples prove, the more in the kitchen, the merrier!

continue to the recipe… about Dynamic Duos: Food Blogger Power Couples, Part 1

5 Food Bloggers’ Weight Loss Success Stories

Just about all of us have experienced frustrations with weight gain. We’ve seen the numbers on the scale creep up, instead of going down. We’ve started and stopped every fad diet imaginable and declared ourselves vegan, carb-free, protein only and we’ve even tested the limits of our wallets (and our patience) on the latest juice cleanse.

I once tried giving up sugar, caffeine, alcohol, and dairy for an entire week, just to see if I could do it and if I’d lose any weight. Let’s just say it wasn’t pretty. I was not a happy person without my morning cup of joe—let alone without all of the other things that make me happy. And neither was anyone around me. I almost made it a week…almost.

That’s why our hats are totally off to these five empowering women, each of which has an incredible weight-loss triumph and unique story to share and inspire on their individual food blogs. Their dedication and successful accomplishments are proof that weight can be lost, goals can be achieved, and you can in fact create food for others, plus have your cake and eat it too.

continue to the recipe… about 5 Food Bloggers’ Weight Loss Success Stories

4 Food Bloggers Who Changed Their Diets and Saved Their Lives

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. When life gives you a pesky, complicated, hard to pronounce health diagnoses, and doctors don’t have the answers, you take your health into your own hands. You do your own research. You experiment. Often starting with changes in what you eat. At least that’s what these bloggers did.

What these Wonder Women have learned is how to overcome their health adversities, not just with medicine alone, but by altering what they eat. They discovered that food can be one of the best medicines and that even with a limited diet, what you eat and how you prepare it doesn’t mean you have to go without flavor. Their patience and creativity has been challenged, but they’ve learned to improvise, adapt, and most importantly, get healthy. Their resilience has clearly paid off—just take a look at their blogs.

continue to the recipe… about 4 Food Bloggers Who Changed Their Diets and Saved Their Lives

The American Farmer and Iowa Corn Quest Tour

Although he’s officially handed over the reins, 82 year old farmer Bill Rempp still continues to work alongside his son Kevin on the 1,200 acre family farm in central Iowa, better known as the heartland of America. And some days—when he’s lucky—you just might find his 6-month-old great grandson, Will, in the bucket seat next to him.

Will is poised to be a seventh generation farmer in the Rempp family tree and his great grandpa proudly shared this photo with me.

I was one of several invited food bloggers who traveled to Des Moines, Iowa to learn about Iowa corn and farm-fresh foods from farmers like Bill Rempp on the annual Iowa Corn Quest Tour sponsored by the Iowa Corn Growers Association.

I’m an inquisitive sort, so meeting food producers and getting to know more about where my food comes from is one of my favorite parts of this job. I think everyone can admit that there’s room for improvement when it comes to transparency in food and agriculture. And happily, that same belief was one I heard from the farmers themselves.

Doesn’t most everyone who isn’t a farmer have an idyllic take on what living on a farm would be like?

continue to the recipe… about The American Farmer and Iowa Corn Quest Tour

Friday Faves and Blogger Meet-Ups

Here we are. 1 down and only 51 more to go. Weeks of 2014 that is.

I’m still on the new year, self-improvement train so I’m actively seeking new inspiration, creating goals and taking stock of what my year is going to look like. Are you there too or have you already jumped ship?

This was your most liked Instagram pic of the week

While I’m knee-deep into healthy salads, slow cooker recipes and Instgramming it all as I go, I’m already dreaming of new recipes for Valentine’s Day cookies and summer cookouts. It’s what sitting on my couch in front of a gas-lit fire, day dreaming of wild visions and FoodieCrush plans for 2014 will do for this gal.

Even though I spend most of my days solo when I’m cooking up a storm or playing with pictures on my computer, I’m so lucky to have the opportunity to spend good old fashioned one-on-one time—live and in person—with several groups of very creative cohorts who are in the same blogging boat and happen to live nearby.

This week I went on two blogging brainstorming dates with two different groups of blogging buddies. Our goals were to talk shop and bounce new ideas off of one another, explore new ideas and take a hard look at the big picture and the nuts and bolts of our businesses.

We all walked away feeling inspired and ready to move the needle forward. Are you ready to move forward too?

continue to the recipe… about Friday Faves and Blogger Meet-Ups

Top 10 Recipes from 2013

Let the countdown begin and where’s my champagne?

Another year has nearly made its way into the archives and left me feeling a little reflective. Maybe it’s because I’ve taken a bit of a holiday blog and social media sabbatical, leaving me more time to focus on my family—how is my Smudge growing into a totally fun pre-teen so fast?— and think about what FoodieCrush might look like in 2014.

That led me to looking at what you liked the most of FoodieCrush this past year and sharing them, once again, with you.

continue to the recipe… about Top 10 Recipes from 2013

Todd Porter and Diane Cu of White on Rice Couple Plus Homemade Sriracha Sauce and a Cookbook Giveaway

With the release of their cookbook, Bountiful, Recipes Inspired by Our Garden, foodies Todd Porter and Diane Cu of White On Rice Couple invite us to share their insanely delicious seasonal recipes, including a condiment I can never get enough of, Homemade Sriracha Sauce. And you have the chance to win a copy of their cookbook for yourself.

Todd and Diane are often referred to as one and the same, White On Rice/Todd and Diane/Diane and Todd, most likely due to the fact they are equally talented and share duties both in the kitchen and behind the camera.

They take turns clicking the camera for print and video, they both cook, create and style their photos and recipes (Todd is often found as the author of most of their baking posts while Diane has a penchant for spring rolls) and they share a passion for gathering people around food they love.

But before there was a cookbook, Todd and Diane created a following of faithful food blogging novices, eager to listen and learn about food photography and styling at food blogging conferences across the country.

continue to the recipe… about Todd Porter and Diane Cu of White on Rice Couple Plus Homemade Sriracha Sauce and a Cookbook Giveaway

10 Best Corn Recipes and Friday Faves

Food blogging can be a solitary job.

Dreaming up wild ideas on your own, being a one (wo)man show in the kitchen, taking on the tasks of a full-service photo studio to become a food stylist, prop stylist and photographer all wrapped up into one. And then there’s the writing, which is probably the only part of blogging that truly takes just one brain to deliver our sweet and savory, crunchy or smooth ideas to the table.

But this week, I was far from alone. Instead, I went from the mountains of Park City, UT to the flatlands of the midwest to be immersed in food bloggerness thanks to some of the most talented names on the www’s.

continue to the recipe… about 10 Best Corn Recipes and Friday Faves

$500 Amazon Card Giveaway

What better way to start the week—or depending on how you view your Sunday, maybe you’re ending it—than with a giveaway?

It’s my reader appreciation day, along with 9 other bloggers, and we thought you, our favored readers, deserved a thank you. And hey, let’s say we’re getting in the gift giving spirit since this is the first day of fall, and with the big gift giving holiday right around the corner, we could all use a little moola to help us along the way.

So we’re giving away a $500 Amazon Gift Card to spend however you’d like: new kitchen stuff, sparkly party shoes, or maybe you need a slew of skateboards for the family?

Thank you so much for taking the time to read and share the recipes and fodder found on FoodieCrush. You guys are the reason I’m here, and your comments, emails and feedback help me create this spot for you to learn a little somethin’ and hopefully be a tad bit entertained along the way.

If you have a minute, make sure to check out all the participating blogs:

Climbing Grier Mountain | Bakeaholic Mama | Fabtastic Eats |Rachel Cooks

In Katrina’s Kitchen | The Lemon Bowl | Mommy Hates Cooking | 30A Eats | Shugary Sweets

All you have to do to enter is use the widget below (give it a minute to load but if it doesn’t show up, you can always click on the link). There are extra entries for following these bloggers via Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook. These are some favorite blogs of mine, and they should become some of yours too.

[promosimple id=”21ef”]

Here are the details:

Use the widget above, Promosimple, to enter the giveaway.

A winner will be contacted via email. Email addresses will be used solely for the purpose of contacting the winner. Winner will have 48 hours to respond before another winner is chosen. Open to individuals over the age of 18 only. This giveaway is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Facebook in any way. No purchase necessary to enter.

Good luck!

Disclaimer: This giveaway is sponsored by the following bloggers above. All opinions expressed are of my own.

Friday Faves: 8 Favorite Weekend List Blogs

TGIF.

Heck to the yeah, it’s Friday, and there may not be another day of the week more in need of a point of diversion than this one. Unless of course it’s M, T, W or TH.

If you’re like most, Fridays call for a little escapism, a few nuggets of inspiration to coax you into the weekend and take your mind off the boss-lady who expects you to stick around the office ‘til 4:59 p.m. securely camped out at your desk even though the last moments of summer are tenuously escaping your death grip on fun.

Most every Friday I share my round-up list of Friday Faves, webby resources to inspire, motivate or take me away.

This week I’m sharing some of my favorite fellow blogging listers. You may know of some, or maybe even all of them, but what I really want to know is who is YOUR favorite blog list maker? Maybe it’s someone from this list but hopefully someone new we can all explore. Lead us to their blogs in the comments below.

Here they are, my top 8 destinations for getting away from it all.

continue to the recipe… about Friday Faves: 8 Favorite Weekend List Blogs

NEW! FoodieCrush Magazine Summer 2013 Issue

“Summer means watching cartoons all morning, roaming the neighborhood all day and heading home when the streetlights turn on.”

I don’t remember where I read or heard this quote, but it’s stuck with me. It doesn’t apply to me so much anymore, but it reminds me to encourage my Smudge to create her own summer memories. Memories that will get her through the far-to-soon-approaching school year ala 4th grade.

Putting together the ideas for this issue of FoodieCrush, I had a couple of flashbacks of what summer was for me as a kid. If I really let my mind wander, I could daydream all day about finding 4 leaf clovers in the grass, but they primarily center around, swimming (always swimming), my favorite sand color corduroy OP shorts, dipping my bare feet in the gutter water and racing across the black topped street, Caladryl covered mosquito bites, and riding my red, white and blue banana seat bike Sears Spirit with abandon as my hair caught in my mouth and the tassles on my handlebars whipped in the wind.

Of course as I got older the banana seat bike was kicked to the curb once I discovered one word. B-O-Y-S. Let’s just say I’m going to cherish 4th grade for my girl as much as fervently as possible.

In this issue I put the kibosh on any stories that might contain even a mere nod to mosquitos but I knew you’d be craving some serious food blogger love. So here you’ll find everything from teenage food blogger dreams to crazy fair food you can make at home, to of course, homemade popsicles sure to create some sweet dreams. Natch.continue to the recipe… about NEW! FoodieCrush Magazine Summer 2013 Issue

A Taste of Austin’s Blogher Food ’13 and Friday Faves

Hey ya’ll. That’s my Texas drawl. It’s replacing my aversion to the Utah drawl that drops the n’s and creates the oddest smash up of moosh when it comes to pronunciation. Us Utahns don’t say mouNTains, we say mount-ns, more in mumble form than diction form. We somehow make singular words plural. “I bought it at NordstomS” not Nordstom.

We also replace letters in sentences. “I’m going to drive across the border to Evanston to buy fireworks” (because you can’t buy the big-burn-daddys in Utah, only in Wyoming) turns into, “I’m gonna drive cross the border to EvINGston to get fireworks.”

Sorry Texas, you may not be the title holder to delirious dialects.

I’m almost beginning to feel like a real, live Texan after spending a little over a week traipsing through the hill country from Houston to Austin and back for food conferences and back again for the start of summer at my little seeeester’s in the beautiful Woodlands.

If all of Texas were as lush as my sister’s wooded and trail ridden community, and had about 50% of the humidity, I’d seriously think about transplanting. But, since that ain’t the case, I’ll be sticking to the mountains and deserts of Utah.continue to the recipe… about A Taste of Austin’s Blogher Food ’13 and Friday Faves

Classic Blue Cheese Wedge Salad Recipe and Dole Salad Farm Tour

I must say, this blog has given me the chance to do things I never in my life could have imagined. I mean, how many of you have walked through acres of furrowed rows of big-headed, leafy green orbs to watch as they’re cut from their stalk and stems by the swiftest of hands that instinctively know just the right angle and pressure to keep the lettuces at their tender, leafiest best? Or stayed at amazing resorts, sampling amazing food with amazing foodie friends? Or almost been trampled on the 18th hole of Pebble Beach by a deer (as docmuented here and here.)

Well, I can strike them all off of my bucket list, check this and roger that.

I can’t believe I ate green iceberg lettuce, straight from the field. From the Dole field. From a field that is the birthplace to millions of salads all across the United States. And there I was in the middle of it, wishing I had a little of my favorite dressing to slurp alongside it.

Iceberg screams summer to me thanks to it’s watery, juicy crunch. Which led me to finally posting my favorite Classic Blue Cheese Wedge Salad. My other natural option was a BLT Sandwich, which this actually sort of is, minus the bread. Let’s call it low-carb, shall we?

My salad inspiration stemmed from my trip a few weeks ago to Monterey, CA when a group of food bloggers were invited to the Dole Taste of Spain Salad Summit. It was an opportunity to meet and tour local growers, see the inside operations of one of the Dole Salad factories, eat fantastic food, drink local wine (in a vineyard), savor the coastal temps in relaxing accommodations (please take me back), and learn all sorts of foodie insider information from the editors of Eating Well (did you know that America’s favorite vegetable is asparagus and that 78% of U.S. adults say they are now buying organic?)

continue to the recipe… about Classic Blue Cheese Wedge Salad Recipe and Dole Salad Farm Tour

Quinoa and Avocado Chimichurri Salad for Food Bloggers Against Hunger

One out of every two children is on some sort of food assistance today. Families are living on a daily food budget of three dollars a day for an entire family. I’ll spend twice that on an afternoon doughnut treat for my daughter and her friends. Or for a morning coffee and copy and a magazine that talks about food.

It’s time to put our voices where our mouths are and make some noise to fix what is wrong with the state of nutrition in our country. Thanks to Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry initiative and education of the general public through documentaries like A Place at the Table, the food plight of millions of American’s is being exposed.

When I walk into my daughter’s classroom in the morning, that’s when the notion that this is a real problem hits home. As I look around the continually changing and growing faces, I watch and wonder about who had what for breakfast. Do they look deflated because it’s early and they didn’t want to crawl out from their covers or because breakfast didn’t give them the energy their growing minds need? If they did eat was it a meal balanced with protein, whole grains and calcium or did they swiftly down a sugar soaked cereal that will bring them to a mid-morning crash? Or maybe they had nothing at all?

My daughter and I have an after school routine where she tells me three things about her day. The one I always care about most is about her lunch and how much she ate. While I loved school lunch as a kid, I pack my Smudge’s lunch instead. I want her meal to be balanced. I want to know what is in it and I want to know how much of it she’s eating. I’m not totally hard core about organic and avoiding sugars at all costs, but I definitely don’t want her eating frozen pizza or deep fried french fries everyday in lieu of fresh fruit and whole grains. The funny thing is she doesn’t even know what she’s missing. She doesn’t like french fries anyway. Is that why?

I’m pretty sure the majority of the children’s families in my daughter’s school have a pretty healthy notion of eating. But even having money to buy food doesn’t necessarily translate into buying the right food. You still have to make good choices. continue to the recipe… about Quinoa and Avocado Chimichurri Salad for Food Bloggers Against Hunger

Friday Faves and a Food Blogger Holiday Gift Guide

It’s holiday time and gift giving is grand! Next week you’ll be seeing some talented bloggers in the new Holiday issue of FoodieCrush, so I’m not going to wax on a lot today about how you should think of others instead of just yourselves and give gifts to those in need.

That said, we all deserve a little holiday trinket or two of joy, am I right or what? Hells to the yeahs!

In the next two weeks I’ll be hosting some giveaways that you don’t usually see on food blogs, a few of my favorite finds this year. What is this? Oprah? Nah, just a thank you to all of you awesome readers for sharing your love of food bloggers, photography and good eats with me.

Until then, here’s a taste to wet—or is it whet?—your appetite. Below are a few multi-talented food bloggers whose creativity isn’t limited to the kitchen and whose wares would make great discoveries under the Christmas tree or alongside the menorah.continue to the recipe… about Friday Faves and a Food Blogger Holiday Gift Guide

Happy Thanks and Happy Eats

There are so many things I am beyond thankful for. Like this painting Smudge made for the blog. She sees how much time and effort I put into this space on the web and wants so much to be a part of it. To be a part of me. And she is, far more than she’ll ever know.

This month has been a realization in the fact that, ugh, I am aging. And she and I are getting older and life isn’t always what we expected it to be. And even though there is still so much life to live.continue to the recipe… about Happy Thanks and Happy Eats

Crab Salad Sweet Potato Chip Bites and a Virtual Baby Shower

There’s nothing in the world that can bring a smile to one’s face like seeing a new mama gaze wonderously at her newborn baby. The cliché is true, each and every one of those nuggets of time are mini miracles.

And today we have a little celebrating to do: TA-DA! We’re welcoming a new baby that one of our favorite bloggers will soon be smiling sweetly upon. Thanks to Maria, Marla, Gaby and Brian for hosting a virtual baby shower for Lisa of the popular food blog With Style and Grace.continue to the recipe… about Crab Salad Sweet Potato Chip Bites and a Virtual Baby Shower

Friday Faves and September 2012 Food Blog Calendar

Here we are and the first week of September has nearly been put to bed and I’m finally coming out of my cheese coma.

And just like a 17-year-old stealthily sneaking into the house after being just an hour—or so—late after curfew (not that I would know ANYTHING about that) I’m delivering the September Food Blogger Calendar, or more affectionately designated foodblogcal. I don’t remember who coined it for me on Twitter, if it was you, please let me know in the comments so I can give appropriate credit where credit is due.continue to the recipe… about Friday Faves and September 2012 Food Blog Calendar

Hotel Inspired White Peach Sangria with Harry & David

The weekend started innocently enough. We landed. We checked in. And then, we discovered our gift boxes. And that’s when the party started.

Sweet Riesling, sparklin peach juice, fresh fruit and a few resourceful food bloggers. I smelled Sangria, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

back row: Rebecca, Kristen, Jenna, Lori, me and Bridget front row: Maria, Sandy, Rachel, Jessica, and Amy

This was a weekend of food bloggers on a trip to learn about a storied company. Yeah, you’ve heard about these gigs before. Well, this was my first one. The newbie in “the group.” A little trepidatious and a lot honored at being asked to go. I mean who am I? I’m just someone who likes to tell people about cool recipes and food bloggers. I’m not of “their” echelon.

But guess what? They didn’t have an echelon. They were just real. Live. And lovely. And thanks to our hosts, Harry & David and Sandy and Paul, I figured that out really quickly.

And yes, the sangria didn’t hurt either.

continue to the recipe… about Hotel Inspired White Peach Sangria with Harry & David

Friday Faves and August 2012 Food Blog Calendar Free Download

Another day. Another week. Another month has suddenly escaped me.

I had so many grand plans for the summer: Early morning bike rides to improve my daughter’s novice two-wheeling skills, lazy days at the pool, evening cookouts in our neighboring canyon and getting my garden into tip-top shape.

Some of it happened, some of it will still happen, its my summer mission.

There are two things I’m obsessed in discovering how others manage: what time they go to bed and what sort of calendaring system they use to keep themselves organized.

Before I had my daughter was such a good list-maker. I kept track of everything, knocking off to-do items like pro bowlers who hit strikes with ease.

But then I tried to make the conversion to online list making and calendaring. It worked part of the time, mostly when I was keeping track on my iPhone and discovering great new apps like Teux Deux, Google Calendar and the like. But no matter how hard I tried to adapt, I didin’t discover the app that worked for me. I felt like I was taking a step backward. I was always 2 days behind by the time I would log on and check my calender, to see what was in store for next week.

I needed to write it all down.continue to the recipe… about Friday Faves and August 2012 Food Blog Calendar Free Download

Top 10 Pinterest Tips from Evo Conference 2012

I’m still riding the high of the past 2 weeks when my life flipped upside down, inside out and back again. I had my last day at my day job of five years, launched the summer issue of FoodieCrush, sent Smudge to overnight Girl Scout Camp for 5 days (!) and spent the better part of last week just over the mountain in Park City at Canyons Resort for this year’s Evo Conference.

Life is starting to power down a bit now and I’m quickly acclimating to working at home, for myself, for you and for my clients.

Not one to sit and watch soap operas and eat bon bons (one of my mom’s favorite sayings) I have several new projects in production and several more on the docket. Work life isn’t slowing down at all, if anything it’s getting busier, but at least my andrenaline levels are finally evening out.

So what did I learn at Evo? Here’s a snapshot of 15 things I took home—via Instagram—in addition to this amazing recipe for Whiskey Lemonade...

continue to the recipe… about Top 10 Pinterest Tips from Evo Conference 2012

Calling All Bloggers: Your Favorite Kitchen Utensil Please

Yes, that is a photo of my favorite drawer in my kitchen. It’s a mess, it’s overflowing and it’s indispensible.

I’m looking for your favorite kitchen helper via your handy smart phone to include in the next issue of Foodie Crush magazine. The utensil you can’t cook without.

SNAP! Simply take a photo of your favorite utensil with your phone and…

1. Tweet the camera phone photo to me at @foodiecrush or

2. E-mail me the photo at [email protected]

However you want to edit the photo is up to you. The only requirement is that it be taken with your camera phone.

The next issue fo Foodie Crush will be coming out in July with a serious roster of amazing food bloggers, their recipes and photography. Check out the previous issue of Foodie Crush to get a feel for what more is in store this summer.

Thanks for reading and please keep in touch. Subscribe to Foodie Crush and follow me on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest and check out Foodie Crush magazine and Cookie Cravings cookbook.

Friday Faves: My View of Blogher Food 2012

Blogher Food 2012, held this year in Seattle Washington, flourished with food bloggers eager to learn, link-up and of course, talk food.

I did my fair amount of blogger stalking, trying to act nonchalant as I oh-so casually stared at nametags and wondered if I had lunch in my teeth, placing unfamiliar faces to familiar @usernames and occasionally calling someone by the wrong name completely.

I didn’t arrive in Seattle with much of an agenda besides becoming more familiar with the food blogging community. Yes there were plenty of online faces I was thrilled to meet in person, but what was just as inspiring was meeting bloggers I wasn’t aware of in the flip-flop fashion of how I normally discover bloggers—meeting them in the flesh first instead of via their online presence and then wondering what they’re REALLY like in real life.

Day one’s keynote with photographers/food bloggers Diane and Todd of White on Rice Couple christened my weekend with their mantra, “Your eyes are your lens, your heart is your shutter.”

I intentionally left my DSLR at home, wanting to be more spontaneous in capturing the memories of the weekend and my view of the city so instead I shot from the hip with my iPhone. Many of these photos were posted to my Instagram and all were edited with the VSCO app .

continue to the recipe… about Friday Faves: My View of Blogher Food 2012

Announcing the Cookie Cravings Cookbook Plus a Giveaway

Hey! Guess what? We’ve birthed ourselves a cookie cookbook.

I’m thrilled to announce that Cookie Cravings cookbook is now available!

And to celebrate its arrival we’re giving away a KitchenAid 7-quart Stand Mixer just like the one Maria used to bake all these cookie wonders. Believe me, it got a workout. Oh, and a little known fact about Maria: If you can believe it, Maria doesn’t like to eat cookie dough. She’d rather eat the cookies baked! Which turned out just fine, more dough for me and Josh to snack on.

Okay, now I’m getting ahead of myself. First, the cookbook…

Maria’s Triple Chocolate Oreo Chunk Cookies from the Cookie Cravings Cookbook

I’ve partnered with Maria and Josh of Two Peas and Their Pod to co-publish their first e-Cookbook, Cookie Cravings. It’s been such a blast plotting, planning and BAKING. We’re thrilled to share it and a bunch of other downloadable goodies with you.

Cookie Cravings is a 78-page downloadable cookbook that includes all new photography, new stories and a month of cookie recipes: 15 favorite recipes from the Two Peas and Their Pod blog plus 15 new cookie recipes created specifically for Cookie Cravings. I can verify they are all delicious after nibbling my way through the cookie cornucopia as I photographed and styled them for the book. My skinny jeans are officially on vacation.

And just like they say during late night T.V., “But wait! That’s not all!”continue to the recipe… about Announcing the Cookie Cravings Cookbook Plus a Giveaway

Pam Anderson of Three Many Cooks, Caesar Salad and a Giveaway

Some lucky food bloggers are seeing their online blogs and recipes become real-life cookbooks.

Pam Anderson took the opposite route. See, Pam is actually a very, very accomplished recipe developer and cookbook author—starting her career as the Executive Editor of Cook’s Illustrated magazine, yeah, you know, THAT one!—and is a New York Times best-selling author of six cookbooks, is a Julia Child Award winner for her cookbook The Perfect Recipe, and is now adding even more prestige to her resumé with the release of the James Beard-nominated How to Cook Without a Book.

Obviously this talented lady knows how to talk food, which she does with her two lovely and driven daughters, Maggy and Sharon, at the popular food blog ThreeManyCooks.

Cook Without a Book was originally intended to be titled ‘Meatless Mondays’ with the purpose of drawing carnivores to the idea that going sans-meat once a week is an easy adjustment in prep and happiness for the palate.

Pam professes that she is not a full-time vegetarian but states, “Once you go this direction, you realize it really isn’t that hard, and is fully satisfying.” Her reason for writing the book? “I wanted to show people you don’t have to change your pantry that much, this cookbook is meant for mainstream America.”

continue to the recipe… about Pam Anderson of Three Many Cooks, Caesar Salad and a Giveaway

Savory to Sweet: 6 Quick Breads and Cranberry Nut Bread

Food gifts are always a highlight of my gift giving holiday regimen. Is it because I like to cook? Or maybe because I like to eat (!).

This year I was inspired by Jaclyn of Food + Words’ article about homemade gifts in the debut issue of FoodieCrush magazine (page 18) and planned on making one of my favorite quick breads, a recipe given to me years ago by a dear co-worker.

But once I baked my loaves of Cranberry Nut Bread, my distribution intention gears changed toot sweet.

I just had to have one slice. And then another. And maybe just clean up those little old crumbs over there.The combo of tart cranberries and sweet bread with the nuts were just too good to share.

It was Christmas. I deserved a treat too, right? Right?

So instead of receiving the breads, my neighbors found my mom’s awesomest fudge in my cake-crumbed hands, standing at their doors, with a delicious holiday food gift substitute.

Today I found there were just a few slices left, so I used them in a sweet, cakey version of french toast for my daughter and her sleepover friend. Um, yeah. They licked the plates clean.

continue to the recipe… about Savory to Sweet: 6 Quick Breads and Cranberry Nut Bread

Happy Happy and Merry Merry

Wishing you and yours a fantastic Christmas day filled with much love, good food & spirits and loads of laughter.

XOXO, Heidi

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