Foodblogger Awards and a Game of Tag

Once again, I am amazed at the cohesiveness of the foodblogging community. There are literally thousands upon thousands of food blogs out there, so you might think that this would be a highly competitive market. But for the most part, this is not the case. Almost every day I see the wonderful, encouraging, supportive nature of foodbloggers, in their comments to me and to each other. But if you need more proof, look no further than the "awards" they liberally give each other and the games they play, all designed to bring more traffic to one another's sites.

It may be cheating for me to roll these two things into one post, but in the past few days I've been both tagged and awarded. And now it's my turn to pass these things on.

First, the One Lovely Blog award was kindly given to me by Akheela of Torview. Please check out her lovely blog as well. I now must pass this award on to 15 other bloggers, and I am happy to name the following as my recipients:

1. Lisa at Sugar Free Low Carb Recipes
2. Emma at Sunflower Days
3. Lynn at I'll Have What She's Having
4. Stella at The Witchy Kitchen
5. Susan at The Urban Baker
6. Simran at A Little Yumminess
7. Jen at Fogg Road Kitchen
8. Amanda at Baking Without a Box
9. Michelle at Jelly Shot Test Kitchen
10. Blackbook Kitchen Diaries (I wish I knew the author's name, but her creations are incredible!)
11. Sommer at A Mama With Flavor
12. Susi at Susi's Kochen Und Backen Adventures
13. Veronica at The Enchanted Cook
14. Karen at Tasty Trials
15. Christiane at The Mom Chef

Please check out all of these wonderful blogs, and see what they've got cooking.

And now, on to a game of foodblogger tag. Amanda at Baking Without a Box tagged me and now I am tasked with answering eight questions and then tagging eight other foodbloggers who must answer questions of my choosing. This game has been going around a while so I will *try* to choose people who have yet to be tagged but my apologies if I double up on someone. And there is no obligation to play, we all have busy lives so I won't be utterly and completely crushed if you don't respond. Just a little bit crushed, but I will survive!

So to answer Amanda's questions...

1) What's your all-time favorite "to die for" dessert?

- This is tough for a diehard sweet-tooth such as myself. There are so many lovely things to choose from! But I think it's a toss-up between a really good pecan pie and a wellmade apple crisp. Strangely, no chocolate, but sometimes the best desserts are the ones that smell like cinnamon and make you think of your mother!

2) If you could meet any celebrity chef and spend a day with them, who would you pick?

- Uh oh. Um, is it wrong for a foodblogger to confess she doesn't really pay attention to celebrity chefs? I guess I will have to say Mark Bittman, because the man really does know how to cook almost everything. And in the shows I have seen him in, he seems like a nice enough guy to hang out with. Tyler Florence seems nice too, and I did get a kick out of the Food Truck show, I thought it was a great concept.


3) Favorite fair food? You know you've got one. (Funnel cakes anyone?)

-No funnel cakes for me. Just give me a big ol' sausage with peppers and onions. Sausages from a cart on a street corner or at a fair just taste better than the ones cooked at home!


4) What's your biggest kitchen blooper?
- What are you talking about? I've never had one. Riiiiiiiiiigggghhhhttt. Sure. Okay, so I've had more than I can count. How about getting a coffee cake into the oven and realizing that I only ever put in half the flour! This was early on, when I disdained getting all of my ingredients together at the beginning, before I started mixing. Learned my lesson from that one, when I ended up with flat, uncooked goo instead of a lovely coffee cake to bring to the office.



5) Is there any common food that just gives you the icks? (I can't eat fresh tomatoes. Seriously.)

- Beets. Yuck, I really just detest beets.


6) Your blog is becoming a film a la Julie & Julia, only more wonderful because it's about you. So who do you cast to play your part? (Bonus: How about anyone else's part?)

- How about I play myself so I can get paid for the royalty rights AND for the acting?


7) What's your favorite thing in your kitchen right now?

-Well, it's early in the morning, so that would be my coffeemaker, powering me up and fuelling me through my day!



8) What's your biggest goal coming up to tackle and conquer?

- I really need to tackle low carb yeast bread. I keep promising myself to do it and then I get side-tracked by something else. But I also plan to do a whole month of going gluten free, sometime after Christmas. And by that I don't mean just on my blog, but actually eating gluten-free for a whole month to test out the challenges of it and see if it helps at all with my blood sugars.



And now, I tag the following bloggers!



1. Donna at My Tasty Journey

2. Dimah at Orange Blossom Water

3. Akheela at Torview

4. Emma at Sunflower Days

5. Shirley at What About Second Breakfast?

6. Sophie at Sophie's Foodiefiles

7. Erin at EKat's Kitchen

8. Rick at Bittersweet

Players, are you ready? Please answer these very deep, very complex, oh-so-enlightening questions about yourselves!

1. What is your go-to recipe when you just can't figure out what else to make for dinner?
2. What is your "guilty pleasure" food (i.e. junk food that you don't like to admit to)?
3. If you could use only one kitchen gadget for the rest of your life, what would it be?
4. What's your favourite recipe "short-cut" to make things easier and faster?
5. Are you a coffee person, a tea person or a hot chocolate person? Or none of the above?
6. What song, when it comes on the radio or stereo, do you just HAVE to get up and shake your thang to? (Not food related, but hey, it's important!)
7. What's the last "specialty" ingredient you bought for a recipe?
8. Out of all your recipes that you've made in the last three months, what's your favourite?

And go!!! Have fun!