50th anniversary and an award

I realised the other day that I reached my 50th post two posts ago (well three if you count this one). What made me realise it was being honoured by being included in Laws of the Kitchen‘s list of blogs to whom she chose to pass on the ‘One Lovely Blog’ award. Thanks very much Cakelaw! It means a lot to know that others enjoy reading my blog  - especially when I’m quite new to the game.

According to the rules of the award I must pass it on to 15 other bloggers whom I admire/have recently discovered (I’m not totally clear on which of these it is so I’m going to do a mix – some are recent and some I have been following for a while). However I’ve decided to be naughty and only list 10 of my top blogs instead of 15 including a blurb on each blog, rather than just a list of names, with the hope that quality will make up for quantity. So this award goes to (in no particular order)….

Lambs Ears and Honey –  well written, informative, and very supportive of the local food industry in South Australia (including our local book publishers Wakefield Press). Amanda really puts in the time to find out, visit and interview the growers, producers and cooks/chefs and provides great background information on all. She recently did two posts on some of her favourite cook books which is a sound starting point if you’re keen to start a great collection. As well as her normal posting Amanda also does a fortnightly post called ‘what’s in the box’ where she provides cooking tips and recipes for making best use of the locally grown fruit and vegetables people receive who subscribe to the Adelaide Food Connect business. Check it out to learn more. She is also a frequent poster of food tidbits on Facebook (and she tweets too!).

Fig Jam and Lime Cordial – Celia writes from somewhere just outside Sydney and is one amazingly prolific cook and accomplished woman. She makes (and now grows) almost everything her family (and most of the neighbourhood I think) eats. And it’s not basic stuff. She is a baker extraordinaire (you absolutely must read her baking posts), she pickles and preserves, she tempers and makes chocolate, and offers up lovely thoughts on life now and then –  and her partner makes all sorts of goodies too. She generously provides a number of really useful tabs on her site that take you further into a number of specific produce making topics such as ‘chocolate making’, ‘jams, jellies and sauces’, ‘bread’ etc. A glimpse at her adored chooks is also worth a visit.

Kitchenist – This is an English blog written by a woman originally from Canada and was one of the first I bookmarked and returned to regularly when I was deciding whether to start my own blog. Very well written, lovely, simple photos and great dishes. She also does a weekly rundown of her vegetable market haul and is very vego focussed (although not completely) so particularly useful for vegetable dishes/ideas.

green bean food – a blog from Queensland  that is just lovely. You can get lost in her photos and descriptions of all the lovely places she visits – often in country towns or away from the main city (although she does the city too). Great cook too who creates mouthwatering dishes with lots of colour and punchy flavours (and there’s always really funky laid back music playing on her site – usually I don’t like this but she plays really good mood music and draws you into some  relaxed food surfing). If you don’t know Brisbane (I don’t) I reckon this would be a great guide for a visit.

Eating Adelaide – a well written and useful blog for those of us who live in Adelaide – lots of reviews of all the places you’ve been thinking about trying (and some you didn’t know about), plus some original recipes. Alex also has a wine background so her reviews include very helpful wine type knowledge.

The Hospitality Guru – Anna is a professional chef and caterer (with a penchant for good beer) but writes this blog mainly as an account of her personal food experiences (and some chefing stuff). She is very generous with tips and hints for us less professional foodies (and aspiring or early chefs) and introduced me to OzHarvest (she is an ambassador) which is about to start up in Adelaide. It’s a scheme to ‘rescue’ good excess food from food businesses (such as supermarkets, bakeries etc) and supply them to charity organisations to feed people in need. Really worthwhile cause that’s food related. Supporting this venture sounds like the perfect way for foodies to give back to the community.

he needs food - John (Sydney based, Croatian background) takes the most gorgeous food and associated mise-en-scene photos I’ve ever seen. His blog is worth visiting just to look at the photos – seriously! He’s also a talented, creative and original cook who seems to try making everything from scratch at least once. His tour of Wellington in New Zealand (over several posts) is one that I intend to use when I next holiday there – he’s created a Wellington I really must see  - and taste.

Spice and More - Sydney based home cook with a dry sense of humour who uses spices (as you might guess) to great effect (she has an Indian background) and just generally cooks good food. She recently whipped up feasts in the dark on an open campfire while camping her way around the Queensland coast and most recently has commenced learning and experimenting with gluten free cooking.

Ooh, look… – I started reading this site because of the name – don’t you love it? Bel cooks an eclectic range of food from light and healthy to oh so sinful and junky (see recent post on candied bacon with ice-cream). Written with a light hand and easy humour, you can read Bel’s blog and feel like she’s talking to you as a friend. She also recently started a craft blog.

Ducklicious – this is the brand new blog (just three posts old) of a good friend of mine who is an extraordinary woman. She owns and runs Jagger Fine Foods in the Central Market and is also writing a duck cook book (I can just hear you all salivating now). If you read my blog regularly you will remember me mentioning Lucy here, here and especially here when she cooked a fabulous duck centred feast I was lucky enough to be invited to. Lucy’s blog will have “some travel, some food history, some photos, some information and some recipes. And its all about duck.”

And you should also check out Laws of the Kitchen who gave me this award. Cakelaw is a lawyer by day and an adventurous cook in her down time. I admire her greatly for her bravery and commitment to make a range of foods that she’s never tried and may not even fancy! She follows two baking communities who are each cooking their way through a cookbook by Dorie Greenspan – so she doesn’t get to choose the recipes but bakes along with hundreds of others every week. The results are fascinating, sometimes disappointing (for her) and sometimes surprisingly wonderful (she cooks other stuff too).

Advertisement