I recently found out about an opportunity to be on Grill It with Bobby Flay on the Food Network. The network is currently looking for guests to appear on the show for its 3rd season and asking for recipes and 3-minute video clips of contenders doing their thing on the grill. While getting on TV or having a cooking show had never been a particular aim or objective of mine since I began my journey into food blogging, when this opportunity arose, I thought, why not?
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Familiar foods, recipes and approaches to cooking are a real comfort to most of us. They remind us of home, childhood, and good times with loved-ones. They’re guaranteed to satisfy our taste buds and “hit the spot.” However, I’ve realized through my passion for adventure and exploration, that flavors and cuisines from other countries can add a new enjoyment to our meals and even provide a window into understanding other people of the world and their cultures. The recent disaster in Haiti has me thinking about their foodways and dishes, which you don’t usually hear much about.
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Check out the Haitian Relief fundraising event by food bloggers this Sunday, Februrary 21st in Atlanta, New York, Chicago and L.A. - Stir It! 28

• ****1 1/2 pounds medium shrimp, Shelled and deveined

Staring in my cabinet at two cans of pumpkin puree that were left over from my holiday baking, I asked myself, “what can I do with this besides wait until next holiday season to bake with it, or cheat on my New Year’s resolution to cut back on sweets with an attempt at pumpkin cheesecake?” The answer: a warming and slightly spicy pumpkin soup. Leaning on my love of coconut, cilantro and fragrant curry powder, I looked to those ingredients to add full-bodied flavor to this vegetarian and vegan friendly soup.

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Over the holidays I hosted a get-together for a few high school friends when I went home for Christmas. My menu consisted of chicken saté with peanut sauce, water crackers topped with thin slices of smoked salmon and parsley cream cheese, spiced roasted nuts, herb-seasoned olives, an assortment of holiday cookies, St. Germain cocktails (my favorite drink right about now) and this orange-pecan wild and long-grain rice.
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Seasons greetings! I hope all of you have had a wonderful holiday season, and I wish you many blessings and flavorful eating in 2010. See you online in the new year! (View greeting)

**********I am trying real hard again to stay away from sugar and gluten. Kelly has some great resouces on her site about different low GI sweeteners. I haven't tried any of her recipes yet but so far I really like ingredients.

Happy Thanksgiving!
What’s a Thanksgiving without sweet potato or pumpkin pie? Pies and tarts are actually quite similar so you can feel good about using this tart recipe as a substitute on your table if you want to add a slight change to your Thanksgiving dessert routine.
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My Mom’s side of the family makes the best cornbread dressing, hands down – at least according to my taste buds. And yes, we say dressing not stuffing, we’re from the South. It’s so interesting how different regions and families have different food traditions for the same dish. I recently discovered that some folks have only seen dressing served mashed/fluffed or in a mound rather than in squares the way my family and nearly everyone in my parents’ hometown serves it.
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Happy Thanksgiving!!!! Okay, not yet, but I definitely hope you have a great one that’s full of joy and delicious food. To help you get prepared and inspired, I’m sharing three recipes this week (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) that you might want to include on your dinner table on Thursday. First up is a tasty and easy cocktail to get the spirit flowing among your family and friends.
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Last week I served this tasty pulled chicken sandwich along side my bowl of butternut squash soup. With the weather getting cooler and cooler these days, hot soup and warm sandwiches are ideal for weeknight meals and leftovers to take for lunch. So what makes this sandwich or any sandwich for that matter tasty and more than just the standard luncheon meat on bagged sliced bread like the kind I grew up on (think bologna or ham and cheese)? The answer’s very simple … the bread and the extras.
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Tamika Felder of Tamika and Friends, Inc. shares a guest post for FlavorDiva.com, which was inspired by her organization’s recent Chocolate & Crème fundraiser for their work on cervical cancer awareness. In addition to leading a nonprofit, working in public television, and being a great cook, Tamika recently started a blog with two other cervical cancer survivors to document their quest to train for a triathlon next year. Read more as she shares her inspiration for making Chocolate Banana Nut Bread.

As soon as you walk into any supermarket right now, you’re sure to be met with a bold, colorful and varied display of winter squash. Acorn squash, banana squash, spaghetti squash, buttercup squash, butternut squash, and pumpkins. Have you ever wondered, “What in the world do people do with all this stuff?” I used to.

I can’t really recall anybody from my family cooking with winter squash. If that’s the case for you too, know that these colorful round and odd shaped vegetables can offer wonderful variety to your autumn meals. They’re great for roasting and mashing, and using in baked goods and soup.
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Until this past weekend, I never realized just how beautiful the Virginia countryside is. Last fall I took a trip to Culpeper, VA with a friend to visit their cute shops and pick apples. We had such a great time that I wanted to share the experience with some of my family members. So this past weekend I, my parents, a cousin and several aunts and uncles took an overnight trip to Culpeper and Madison counties for a few farm and winery tours ...

We made it to several [farms] including ... to Graves Mountain Farm for apple picking. Between the nine of us, we left the orchard with about 10 or 11 boxes of apples – staymen, red delicious, golden delicious, fuji, and granny smith. So needless to say, a few of my upcoming posts will include apples! First up, apple pecan chicken salad.

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******** Leslie Cerier is a great teacher and author and I was thrilled to watch her latest video, which was shot in her beautiful country kitchen and gardens. I hope to have a garden like that someday.

If you look around in teashops, coffee shops and even the tea and spice aisles of supermarkets, you’ll notice an increasing presence of the word chai – chai tea, chai tea latte, or chai spice. Although this post isn’t completely on the beverage itself, let me clear up the misnomer of chai tea right away.

In Hindi and various other languages, the word chai itself means tea. So to say chai tea is basically saying tea tea. When Americans say chai or chai tea, what we’re really talking about is masala chai ...

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I’m back! Every now and then you just have to take a break. That was the case for me last week. After pushing hard in August to maintain my blogging schedule of posting twice a week and working to win the 2009 Black Weblog Awards for best food blog (which I did – thank you!), I had to slow down for a moment to regroup. Also, I had to make an adjustment to a new endeavor added to my schedule – yoga teacher training.

...

This has inspired me to share the recipe for this post – a quinoa-millet hot breakfast cereal, which ...
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Hey sisters.

I recently moved back home and I swear Ive been thrown off. My mother pretty much is the owner of the kitchen and there is nothing in there I feel to work with. Ive been eating out a lot, I hardly have a moment to settle down because Ive been working trying to get out of here. The lack of meditaion time leaves me perplexed as to where to begin to create dishes that support all my energies. Ive been eating pop tarts for breakfast, cheerios for lunch and waffles and sardines for dinner. HELP.

If any one can slide me a note for some great quick and easy healthy breakfast dishes I'll be forever in your dept.

One Love.

Hey sisters.

I recently moved back home and I swear Ive been thrown off. My mother pretty much is the owner of the kitchen and there is nothing in there I feel to work with. Ive been eating out a lot, I hardly have a moment to settle down because Ive been working trying to get out of here. The lack of meditaion time leaves me perplexed as to where to begin to create dishes that support all my energies. Ive been eating pop tarts for breakfast, cheerios for lunch and waffles and sardines for dinner. HELP.

If any one can slide me a note for some great quick and easy healthy breakfast dishes I'll be forever in your dept.

One Love.

It’s official! After two months of soliciting your votes for the nomination and then for the final voting round, FlavorDiva.com has won the award for Best Food Blog for the 2009 Black Weblog Awards. FlavorDiva.com is the winner of both the Popular Vote and the Judges’ Vote, and I’m so grateful. Thank you to everyone who voted and encouraged others to vote. Also, thank you to all of my ...
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********I really shouldn't eat cheese but I just can't help myself!. I have issues with dairy and I have a love hate relationship with cheese, mainly I love it :-) all types!.
With that said, I went to spend time at my moms house for labor day and she made my favorite southern style baked mac and cheese. Even though my mom is not southern she cooks a mean mac and cheese. I have child hood memories of saving it for last on my plate. Any school event I would ask my mom to make it, because it will be a sure hit! My sis makes a good mac and cheese too! I don't think I could ever give it up.

*************So this is my collection of sea salts***********

1. Himalayan Pink
2. Black Hawaiian
3. Kala Namak- Indian Mineral Salt
4. Alaea Hawaiian
5. Alderwood Smoked

Roasted French green beans with cherry tomatoes; this is truly a seasonal dish. These tender, yet crisp green beans, also known as haricots verts or French filet beans, are thin and slender and as a result, cook quickly. That should be some solace over the fact that they can be a little hard to find. I bought these beans at ...
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*****I love natural smoked sea salt. It adds a great smoked flavor to veggies. I use it mainly when cooking leafy greens like collards, kale and swiss chard. It taste great with grilled zucchini and string beans too! There are different types on the market I'm using the alder wood smoked sea salt here.
This is the first time I use smoked sea salt on french fries. It was a happy accident. In my hungry state I grabbed the wrong container. Turns out to be very good. :-)
A former ceramic studio mate introduced my to the world of culinary salts. Including course black sea salt which is also one of my must haves. I try not to consume too much salt in my diet, but with sea salt a little goes along way. It's worth a try.

Lucky me! After getting up at the crack of dawn this past Sunday to work eight hours in the hot August sun at the farmers’ market, helping to bring fresh, locally grown produce to Washingtonians, I was greatly rewarded. One of the gracious farmers gave me a box full of beautiful, organic heirloom tomatoes!

This gift was right on time. I had just finished thinking about how I wanted to take advantage of the season’s tomatoes by either canning some tomatoes, or making and canning tomato sauce. That way, I could have peak tomato flavor even after the summer ended.

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Vote for FlavorDiva.com in the 2009 Black Weblog Awards for Best Food Blog!

This past weekend I experimented with whole grain baking thanks to inspiration I received from the cookbook Super Natural Cooking by blogger Heidi Swanson. I picked up the book during a recent weekend excursion to New York’s Hudson Valley. Driving about 1 1/2 hours outside of NYC with my foodie friend ...

.... In addition to taking a self-guided tour of CIA, looking for area farmers’ markets and interesting shops, and stumbling upon a couple of great restaurants, we visited Greig Farm in Red Hook. This small farm was full of ripe, u-pick blueberries.

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FlavorDiva.com is a finalist for the 2009 Black Weblog Awards! Please vote for the tasty blog in the Best Food Blog catagory!

I’ve taken a loss several times before when trying to make french toast that looks like the french toast I’ve had in a few good restaurants. I finally achieved beautiful slices of this breakfast dish, just the way I like, once I realized that it’s about the bread. Of course you have to get the basics for the dip right too – milk, egg, a little sweetness and spices.
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Please vote for FlavorDiva.com as Best Food Blog for the 2009 Black Weblog Awards

Writer, businesswoman and local foods advocate, Renee Brooks Catacalos joined me in a conversation about her love of cooking and experiences in the local foods movement. As the publisher and editor of Edible Chesapeake, a magazine that celebrates local and seasonal foods, she is passionate about sharing stories and information on eating locally and supporting local farmers. I find her story to be an inspiration to those who want to eat well and those who love to cook (or at least want to cook better).

How did you become the editor and publisher of Edible Chesapeake? Did you start the publication?

I took over Edible Chesapeake at the end of 2006 from a couple who started it in 2005. The first issue I published was Spring 2007, so it’s been two and a half years.

(Read more for the full interview)