Thank you, Baltimore Magazine!!!

Baltimore Magazine has named this blog one of the top ten blogs of the year! In their own words...

The Baltimore Snacker: Not just recipes, but reports on local markets, road-trip food, and videos—some food related, some not—all presented with a heaping helping of spot-on humor. [Baltimore Magazine 2011]

I'm smiling here :) But as I tweeted and emailed before, I want to extend sincere apologies to the intern who emailed me and tried to get some info about the blog, but didn't because I was lazy and hadn't checked my messages until after the deadline. Egg on my face here.

But back to Baltimore Magazine: thank you again. This means very much after a difficult year that saw me shut it all down for a few weeks, only then to get a similar compliment from the City Paper (note the headline currently at the top of the page) and then for me to start a whole new project (look for posts about Louisiana this week and next), and try to restart another (yes, gas prices helped bring the Back to the Beltway series to a halt).

I am, as always, humbly touched that I have fans, even more that they like the blog!

He's BAAAAAAAAAAACK...

The sabbatical is over! It's going to be strangely difficult to get the juices flowing again. So why not just start with a few random, food-related observations that I have had over the last two months:

1) One actually hits oneself in the head when one goes on sabbatical just before the Baltimore City Paper informs one of one's blog's "Best of Baltimore" status. But one still feels very groovy.

2) When you spend four years writing a food blog and then suddenly stop, you start feeling the need to just start writing about your recipes and restaurant visits, only to remember that you're not writing it right now.

3) Drinking more water before you drink soda (which is not something you ought to be drinking anyway) really does cut down your overall desire to drink the caffeinated stuff. I'm drinking less soda now, which is always good.

4) Dad spent a weekend a few months ago in St. Joseph's Medical Center. They don't have many patients (I guess they all went next door to GBMC). In fact, they don't have many of anyone - doctors, nurses, patients or visitors. It's like one of those abandoned hospitals in the Silent Hill game series, only without the monsters and gore on the walls.

4a) I mention St. Joseph's because they do something I've never seen a hospital do: room service for visitors! Yes, you too can order stuff off the menu to eat right alongside dear old Dad, Uncle Bob or Mee-Maw, anything at all for just $5. Even more surprising: it's actually not half-bad. For hospital food, it's quite good. For hospital food.

4b) You do not, however, want to eat the food at your local hospice care facility. Nasty as sin. They want these people to actually eat, right?

5) Graul's Market actually sells bags of pre-baked Maryland Beaten Biscuits! Maybe it's just my bag, but they taste a wee bit freezer-burnt. Must make my own.

6) Over the last few months, my sister tried to put my niece, who has autism, on a gluten-free diet. It didn't work very well, but one plus came out of it: my notoriously picky eater of a niece actually started eating new and different foods. Note that she did not finish all of them. I picked up some gluten-free cupcakes from the Sweet Sin Bakery. Their cupcakes are lovely. I like them a lot and plan to get more for myself. None for my niece, however. You should have seen the face she made when she bit into her gluten-free chocolate cupcake: anticipatory, then immediately plummeting into equal parts confused and none-too-pleased. I felt bad. Oh well. More for me.

7) Marie Louise Bistro has been getting better every time I visit. But remember: if you order their crème brûlée, just keep in mind that it isn't actual crème brûlée.

8) Look what I just made!


Plus, I made a lobster roll for the first time, from a lobster I steamed just a little while before. I was tempted to use my wasabi mayonnaise, but I wanted to do my first one "authentically", the way they do up in New England.

9) My gardening has gotten more adventurous, and next year I am planning to take up a second plot! Some of my successes this year: lettuce galore, lots of Roma tomatoes (grown from seed - so proud of that), chilies out the wazoo, potatoes, kale greens, herbs (basil, rue, sage, rosemary, cilantro that bolted, and more oregano and mint than I will ever be able to use). Failures: garlic, strawberries (a total of four edible berries, and right over an ant nest too), and cauliflower. Don't ask me about it.

10) My friend Eric has fallen in love with the New York Times recipe section. Loved a lamb in parchment recipe he made for a few of us recently. But I will still needle him for not reading ahead to where it said the lamb must stay in the oven for 2 1/2 hours. (Not going to discuss that one time that I did the same thing...)

11) The next time you go to see a friend in a play, make sure you reserve tickets ahead of time.

12) Recent food finds that have become an even more important part of my culinary landscape: the nut-free brownies at Graul's; home-strained, Greekified yogurt; the English Rose and Key Lime flavored cupcakes from Iced Gems Baking; just about anything at the Haute Dog Carte; and at least one beer from each brewery that came to the Wine Source for Baltimore Beer Week 2010.

That is it for now. Over the next week or so I am rolling out my return to the Beltway Snacking series. And stay tuned for a brand new long-term project.

Fraa-Jee-Lay... It must be Italian!

Wendi at Bon Appetit, Hon! has started a(n annual?) award-giving practice of just recognizing some area blogs that she likes and has great things to say about. But in true Pay It Forward fashion, whoever receives a "Major Award" has to award other blogs with the distinction. And so on and so on. HowChow slipped me a Major Award, and since I accepted it, I have to award it forward, so to speak.

You can give an award for any reason whatsoever. As long as you have a reason to give it some sort of accolade. Wendi has the basic rules for the "It's a Major Award!" (IAMA!):

1. Post an entry on your blog that displays the IAMA! logo and links back to the person who gave you the award.

2. Name as many other blogs as you like that are deserving of an IAMA! award. But in doing so, you’ll need to say a word or two (or more) about what makes them awesome.

3. Include links to the blogs you are giving the IAMA! award.

4. Leave a comment in the newly awarded blogs letting them know that they have been recognized with an IAMA! award.

5. That’s it.

I assume you can award non-local blogs, but I'll give someone else the honor. I also expect that at some point, somebody is going to be re-awarded! Sorry if you're getting another major award - or should you be sorry?

Dining Dish - Because Dara is so busy I don't know how she has the time to still write a blog at all, much less one as good as hers. And her promotion and advocacy of woman chefs & restauranteurs is especially important in a field that is still overly male.

The Hungover Gourmet - Because Dan just celebrated the final print issue of THG, and because what he writes on THG blog still makes me chuckle.

Minx Eats - Because her hilariously smart-alecky Top Chef and Next Food Network Star recaps never cease to amuse me.


And I stopped watching Top Chef in September!

Pigtown Pigout - Yes, Meg, you're getting another major award. But this one is for the food half of your blogging enterprise. Anyone brave enough to try durian should get this award. I have yet to try durian.

Raspberry Eggplant - Yes, Roopa moved back to Brooklyn - the one in New York - last year, but she's still a local in spirit. Did you know she appeared on Jeopardy! recently?

Strawberries in Paris - Because Elizabeth delivers delicious recipes in such cheerful way! And her angel food cake will certainly turn out better than mine.

Sweet Mary - Because she makes one mean cupcake. And she's understanding the whole job search thing I'm going through.

Just because I didn't nominate you doesn't mean you're not worthy of a nomination. These are just a handful of blogs that deserve the mention. Hey, this isn't a bad idea, Wendi.

A little bummed about these Mobbies

Okay, I was flattered and honored that my peensy blog was nominated for a Mobbie award (you can still vote up to Friday evening by going to the link at right, and you can only vote once per day in each category). but I'm not doing so well. Out of 21 food blogs, I'm, um, #19. A weeeeee bit demoralizing. I feel like Chicago 2016 - with high hopes but out in the first round. Or perhaps one of those cities that didn't even make it to the final four - like Doha. (BTW: of course I'm sad for Chicago but hey, the Olympics are goin' to South America for the first time ever! Way to go, Rio!)

Anyway, just like Arianna Huffington when she ran for California governor along with 150 other people during that crazy recall election in 2003 (I know - I lived in Cali at the time, before it "fell apart"), I'm going to ask my readers to send their votes to other blogs. Alas, there is no hope for me. But thank you all who voted for me! Maybe I'll get nominated again next year?

Of course, if you really still want to vote for me, there's no one stopping you :)

Really, it's an honor just to be nominated...

I just found out that I was nominated for a Mobbie, the Baltimore Sun's "Maryland's Outstanding Blogs" award. Voting for the finalists - in many categories - runs from September 28 at 8:00 AM through October 9 at 5:00 PM. That's two work weeks and a weekend to vote. And you will find many of your favorite local food blogs have been nominated. So go ahead and vote! And if you DO vote for me, well... okay, I promise nothing, except thanks ahead of time :).