[Event] VRC: Italian

This week at The Savory Notebook, the VRC theme is Italian. Anything goes - main dishes, side dishes, sauces, desserts, you name it. You don't have to do the cooking this week either - simply delve into your recipe archives and share a favorite Italian-themed recipe. That's it!

I'll be posting the roundups on Mondays from now on. This will give those who would like to cook a recipe for the week a whole weekend to fit it in. So, look for VRC: Italian on Monday, March 6.

This Post was written by Alysha from The Savory Notebook

Platial.com: maps for us to make and use

I wrote this up on my blog, that I've started a map featuring chefs and restaurants that support local farms (as well as the farms themselves). I would like to invite of you who are aware of these places in your own area to join Platial and start making maps.

I also started a map for a taco truck crawl in Oakland that some members of MouthfulsFood are going to do.

It's a free service, and I think it's totally groovy.

Please let me know if you would like to do a map for the restaurants and farms in your area. It's such a good thing to support businesses that support sustainable agriculture.

NOTE: I had to learn the hard way not to start mapping until I'd created a map. In other words, I spent an hour or more sticking pins on a map, only to discover that I needed to create and name a new map to have those pins be specific to the map. Ack. Also, if you need help, give a shout. I'm going to try to learn more about the system: I've been invited to be a beta-tester.

Thanks.

I was wondering how to create drop-down menus on blogger. I write a site with reviews and news here in ATL and wanted to break it out by category. Can anyone help me? Thanks in advance.


This Post was written by The Blissful Glutton from www.blissfulglutton.com

Size of Post an Issue?

While I can see the entire post that I made about Hawaii, I've been told by a couple bloggers, plus I witnessed it on my office manager's computer, that they can't see anything below the first picture. This is a large post, with 7-8 photos--could that be an issue for their computers? Both of my computers (an ibook and an imac G5) can see the entire post.


This Post was written by Cyndi from http://cyndicooks.com

Cool new tool from Technorati

Hi all,

Technorati has just launched a new tool called "Favorites" where you can create a page with the most recent entries (headlines and excerpts) from your favorite blogs. Sort of like a personalized Food Porn list. You can track up to 50 blogs. I'm in the process of building my favorites list here: http://www.technorati.com/faves/elisebauer if you would like to see an example.

To create a favorites list on Technorati, you need to sign up (it's free) for a membership. Then when you've logged in, at the top of the screen is a link for "Favorites". Click on that to get going. Sometimes adding Typepad blogs can be a little bit difficult. You often need the entire URL, for example, http://www.thefoodsection.com/foodsection not http://www.thefoodsection.com. If you are logged in, you can also review someone else's list of favorites and there is a link that looks like a star symbol that you can click on to add a blog from someone else's list of favorites to your own list.

This Post was written by Elise from Simply Recipes

Blog to Print - rights and such

Hi, everyone,

I have recently been contacted a number of times to provide photos or content to print media - some small, some larger. I write and get published scientific journals all the time, and naively, I thought it would be a similar situation when I agreed to provide articles. Now, I am starting to realize that I could find myself in a tangle of trouble very quickly. Here are some of my concerns, questions, and frustrations:

1. Permission to publish: I always get permission to publish my photos and articles about restaurants for MY BLOG. Most people are totally fine with that. However, I have no idea what they would think if my articles were to appear in print media. If someone wants to use my content (essential for free, often), is it my responsibility or the publisher's responsibility to check with the restaurants? In a recent scenario, an editor asked me to call five different places in Japan for permission to reprint my stuff in their book - except I had no idea what they really chose to print or not! I had never seen the page proofs or anything, which is a whole 'nother story...

2. Page proofs: I ALWAYS get page proofs of all articles I write before publication for my scientific writing. I check them for layout, typos, etc, etc. I was never offered the chance to even see the edits or the page proofs in my last endeavor to provide content for print media. Is this normal? Isn't it scary to think what words may have been twisted/changed to not reflect what I wanted to say?

3. Copyright: Who has the copyright to the material now? Is it now the publisher's words on my blog or my words in their book? I totally think I should have been more careful in the beginning, but for the future, I think I will clarify that all copyright stays with me. And if they don't like that, tough. And another question is whether two independent publishers can use the same article. In theory, if they copyright stays with me, they are borrowing my content (almost as a quote), so I should be able to provide it to two places, right? Or am I missing something here?

4. Photos: What compensation should I ask for per photo usage? Again, I have been solicited a number of times for various pictures. The first time, I was in awe that Fodor's would want to use my photos, so I said yes without hesitation and compensation. And then I was told that I was just ripped off by a number of friends and that I should have asked for some sort of compensation. I was just glad to get credit, but now I am wondering whether I should have some sort of policy.

The truth is, I blog for fun. And I am glad that someone can learn something about Japan, or Asian cuisine in general from my blog. I am not planning on ditching my day job for food writing, so if this turns into a bunch of head aches, my plan is to just say no to all offer to print. But as I said, my blog exists to share a little bit of my culture with everyone out there, so if I can figure out a painless way to have a strict policy, I would like to contribute to print media as my time allows.

Please help me come up with that policy!


This Post was written by Alice from My Epicurean Debauchery.

Using your "real name" on your blog

Do you use your "real name" when blogging? Why did you make that decision, and do you feel it was the right decision? Has there been any fallout, either positive or negative?

I think that it's probably a worthy exercise for newer bloggers to hear why some of us choose to use our real name, and why some of us don't.

I'll start:

When I first started blogging I purposely did not use my given name. I just wrote "jen" everywhere, and kept my last name far away from my blog. I mostly did this because I wasn't initally sure of the direction the blog was going to take and I didn't want anything nefarious to be tied back to my career or used against me.

About 2 years into blogging, I realized that I was really proud of what I had been writing -- I don't use blogging as an avenue to vent against people or to say things that I wouldn't say in public -- and decided to switch everything over to my full, given name.

So far, I think that blogging using my full name has brought only good, and I hope that it continues. I do feel that the decision to be completely open about my blog ties my hands in a few ways -- it's that feeling that, even if I wanted to, I couldn't use my blog for something intensely personal or secretive. Some days I do dream about a "secret" blog where no one knew who I was and I could write exactly what I think, but in general I am happy with my decision.

My advice for new bloggers? It's much easier to start out by not using your full name and then making that decision down the road if you want to. Search engines these days are so thorough that making the change is quick and painless once you decide you want to "go public".

This post was written by Jen Maiser from Life Begins at 30.

Post and EaT Everything WeekEnd L

Post and EaT Everything WeekEnd Lame LeftoverS (PETE WELLS, geddit!) will be hosted at Tomato the second weekend of every month and I shall post a roundup Monday evening.
This is all about the mundane and nearly rotten stuff leftover in the kitchen that you could throw out or recycle or make into something delicious.
I'm talking sub cheese sandwich here, probably the crusts.
You can check out my entry on it here: http://tinyurl.com/fk7rr

subscription lists?

Is there an easy way to set up an email notice subsciption list? Many of the people who read my blog aren't "computer savvy" and a simple email subscription service would be super handy.


This Post was written by darell from darell eats.

Light Box

A while back someone posted a link to a site with instructions for creating light boxes. I recently moved and the former jury-rigged setup I had for photos was impossible in the new place -- so I made a light box. It was a piece of cake and my deepest thanks to whoever first posted the link.

However, I didn't like the gloss finish on the foam board -- too much glare. I liked the matte finish of the white sheet I had been using before. So I cut a slot in the back of the top that I could feed the sheet through. This will also let me insert other cloth backgrounds (my black velvet, for instance) as I need them.



This Post was written by Kevin from Seriously Good.

[Event] VRC: Mardi Gras

Get in the party mood, throw on a few beads, and get in the kitchen to help us celebrate the New Orlean's spirit. You can participate by creating (or just sharing) something Cajun or something inspired by the great city of New Orleans - food or drink is acceptable.

The Savory Notebook will be hosting VRC: Mardi Gras on Sunday, February 26th, so get your link to Alysha and then look for the roundup sometime Sunday night - depending on how much Mardi Gras celebrating goes on here Saturday night......

This Post was written by Alysha from The Savory Notebook

Food Blog Scool Additions

I have added a link to a test calendar which anyone can edit and add their own food or wine blog event to. I have put in a couple of events as an example. Please feel free to add your own events to the calendar. (That's the theory - lets see if it works in practise, eh?)
(Thanks to Amy for the calendar info which she discovered whilst researching an entirely different project we are both involved in: when I saw it I figured we could test it out here - there may be better calendars out there but this one seemed so easy to use. let's see how it goes).

I have moved recent comments above recent posts in the comments section so that any recent comments are more easily viewable.

I am going to suggest that from this day forth, new pupils who want to do so, may introduce themselves with a brief post about their blog. I hope that you will give everyone a warm welcome. I usually sign up new bloggers bi-weekly, so these introductory posts will probably come in spurts. This idea is being tested on the next batch of pupils. We will see how it goes. I think it is a great way to find out about some new blogs.
[This Idea Courtesy of Alanna from A Veggie Venture - thank you Alanna!]

I apologize to current members who did not have the opportunity to do this in the past. In the interests of keeping the number of posts sensible, I would ask that anyone who was already signed up before today, refrain from creating an introductory post at this moment in time. We would be glad to have you all on the welcoming committee, though.

There are other ideas in the works for improving this site that are being investigated. If anyone has some free time (as if!) and would like to volunteer to do do some archiving in the mean time, then please let me know. thanks. Or if anyone has any ideas, especially ones that dont require a lot of manpower, please feel free to leave them in the comments.

This Post was written by Sam from Becks & Posh

[Content] Blogger photo trick

I recently decided to put a photo on my blogger profile, and was initially stymied by Blogger's requirement that the picture be hosted somewhere. Not wanting to set up yet another on-line account (e.g., at Flickr), I first tried linking to my already existing Yahoo photo albums, but Blogger said that the filename was too long. Then I tried tinyurl to shrink the name, but Blogger wanted a graphical file extension. Eventually I found a somewhat non-intuitive solution that I thought I'd share with the S'cool.

Here it is:

1. On your PC, find the photo that you want to post.
2. Using Picassa or your favorite photo conversion tool, convert the file to a 60 kB or smaller jpg. Use a short name, because of the Blogger's filename length limit.
3. Create a new post in Blogger, and upload the photo to it.
4. Switch to the "View HTML" mode, and copy the URL of the photo. Paste the URL in Notepad or another scratch space just in case.
5. Save the post as a draft.
6. Return to Dashboard.
7. Edit your profile, pasting the URL from step 4 into the photo section.
8. When you save your profile, the photo should appear.

A few other profile-related photo tips can be found in the comments of [Content] First Impressions/Personality.


Marc from Mental Masala

Shameless Self Promotion

posted by McAuliflower of Brownie Points

I want to share a light bulb moment inspired by the latest entry at waiterrant... making personalized pens with your blog url on it.

Leave these at your favorite restaurants (or not so favorite too) when signing away your bill. Or like waiter, leave them up at the hostess station.

header issues

HELP!! How do I link my header back to my mainpage? I've been tinkling with adding a new image. But all I could do is replace the image file in the CSS part under header.

Another problem I have is that since I've incorporated my blog title in the header image, I do not need the automatically generated text by Blogger. However, Blogger would not allow me to not have it there. Hence I changed my title to a * sign as a temporary solution.

Can someone help me??

posted by kel @ Green Olive Tree

Not Really an Event, More of a Sharing

I posted an opus on blog appetit about pomegranates then promised recipes for "part two."

Despite my best intentions, life intervened and I don't have time right now to test and write up my ideas, so I thought I would ask food blg sc'ool participants if they have any posts with info, user tips or recipes about pomegranates. Photos would be cool, too. It's a nice way to reuse some of the material in your archives.

No pressure, no deadline. Just email me your Pomegranate Permalinks and I'll create a round up. As I get more I'll add them. I started out with a treasure trove of recipes and info from Elise of Simply Recipes.

Email me through my profile at Blog Appetit. My original post about pomegranates is at Seeds of My Heart -- Pomegranates Part One. The link back to Elise is at Simply Pomegranate. You can also leave a comment at the Simply Pomegranate post with the link and I'll pick it up there.

Posted by Faith of Blog Appetit

When should I start to worry about archiving

While I realize I still have a way to go - I just have 177 posts to date - but when I want to "hide" individual recipes and the recipe link page to much earlier I change the date for them to last summer. But I can only go back 300 posts in edit mode. What will happen when I hit 300?

I've spent more than a week just redoing the 2006 posts and separating the recipe from the post. Before it gets too long and involved what should I do -or am I fine and have to do nothing?

Thanks for any insights here.

small font sizes driving you crazy?

I just found out that Firefox has a nifty feature that allows you to set the minimum size for a font. Tools >> Options >> Content then go to the advanced button beside "fonts". In the new window, there is a "minimum font size" box. I can't tell you how freeing this has been for me who desperately needs new glasses! I can at last read sites that had the tiniest font size without having to increase the text size with ctrl+ +. (font-size on this post set at 100% rather than the default 75% so that people like me who haven't yet configured their firefox browser can still read this page)

No More Mr Nice Girl

I now realise that for everyone who supported my actions last Sunday, other people are equally as pissed off with me. I don't envy my own position as people who once turned to me now turn on me.

I guess I am probably really just too sensitive for this food blog s'cool mistress mularky. I know I said I can take it, but perhaps I cant.

I am not 100 % certain I did the right thing, but I did do it and I have learnt many things from the experience. I have made my bed and I must lie in it.

I would hate to see this issue divide the "community" (that word now such a burden now where once it was a joy), but maybe at the end of the day, that is what it needs to do if we dont all see eye to eye. These days I try to be a little less hot headed than i was in my youth, but of course it doesnt always work out that way.

I havent actually ruled out reinstating the comments of the post. I have actually been thinking about it since Monday, I really cant come to a decision on it - it is tearing me apart.

I am going to sleep on it a while longer.

In the meantime, I am taking a 90 % break from blogging, and just to quash the rumours that have already started. It has nothing to do with this incident, it was for other, personal reasons that came to a head last Sunday which I dont care to outline here. Just so happen they coincided, that's all.


Sam

PS - I have never once thought of this my blog, i think of it as our blog - but I realise now it looks as if I acted as if was my blog last weekend. I took the action I did as a protective measure, nothing more, nothing less.

[Event] VRC: Potatoes

Just a quick reminder that Biscuit Girl over at You Gonna Eat All That? is hosting the VRC (Virtual Recipe Club) roundup this week. Send an email to Biscuit Girl (biscuitblogATearthlinkDOTnet) or post a comment to her blog.

For those of you who have not participated in or heard about VRC, it's a weekly event hosted by The Savory Notebook. You can learn more about this event here.

Hope to see lots of yummy recipes on Sunday's (2/19) roundup!

Cookyrights

posted by McAuliflower from Brownie Points.

by way of boing boing (oh great oracle that it is!)...

what would your reaction be if you received a letter after a dinner party or blog post that states this:

...Law-abiding visitors of your appartement informed us that you violated
in particular the recipes "zucchini flower I+II" of chef Heinz Beck, whose family is thus deprived their sustenance by your piracy. You furthermore violated the moral rights of chef Heinz Beck by not using any cardamom, which is a small but important trace substance in these dishes.

Unfortunately this is not a parody! Further commentary on this letter at at Fellowship of fsfe.

letter in whole:

Dear consumer,

it has been brought to the attention of the Guild of Guide Michelin approved restaurants (GOGMA) that you have violated the cookyright of its star chefs, as defined under directive 2008/29/EC.

Law-abiding visitors of your appartement informed us that you violated in particular the recipes "zucchini flower I+II" of chef Heinz Beck, whose family is thus deprived their sustenance by your piracy. You furthermore violated the moral rights of chef Heinz Beck by not using any cardamom, which is a small but important trace substance in these dishes.

As you know from the legal information provided to you when dining at our restaurants, which you signed together with your pre-dining bill, you are in particular NOT AUTHORISED to ANALYSE, IMITATE, COOK FOR YOURSELF AND OTHERS, LEARN FROM or be INSPIRED BY recipes provided to you by THE RESTAURANT.

This act constitutes copyright infringement of the most serious kind.

According to Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament, GOGMA orders you to destroy your circumvention device, colloquially known as kitchen, and will further take legal action against those who supplied you with said circumvention device.

Violation of cookyright deprives thousands of restaurant owners of their living, and harms the food industry, one of the largest employers worldwide.

GOGMA therefore finds itself forced to set you a one week deadline to comply with this order, effective immediately.

S. Hark
GAGOGMA
(General Attorney of Guild of Guide Michelin approved restaurants)

IMBB announcement

IMBB23 was announced over at Cucina Test Rossa a week or two ago.
It's a great theme this month - head over to Laura to find out what it is.

Tips for getting you events publicized:

1) Make sure you are a already signed up member of this S'cool, so you can post a notice here. I only join people up every 2 weeks at the most, so you will have to plan being a member well in advance. Please don't leave it to the last minute. I can post up on your behalf like this, but really, I prefer not to have to do that as it takes me away from the things I am meant to be doing with my time.

2) Write to Ronald at IMBB. Invariably he won't reply, so instead write to Andrew who is more on the ball. (Right now he is moving and has no internet access, but usually he is on the case fast).

3)Let sweetnicks know at Sticky date.


Ooh la-la!

Sam

food and wine article about food bloggers

As you may have noticed I closed the comments section on the earlier post about Food and Wine magazine. Let me explain some of the reasons why:

1) I had a hot-headed reaction to the piece which since I have calmed down and reconsidered, I now regret.

2) The article not really such a big deal. Personally I don't like that he singled out recognisible individuals for derision, but other than that the rest of the article made some valid and interesting points. The people he picked on have have their own personal issues with the journalist to sort out, and whilst I respect that, the rest of us should certainly try and be less subjective about the matter.

3) It was pointed out to me (and I actually missed this one myself. sorry), that the author of the piece was being ridiculed about his appearance in the comments on this site, and that kind of behaviour is absolutely unacceptable here.

4) When you have an argument with someone, anyone, we all know lots of silly things are often said in the heat of the moment. Many of us said silly unsensible things in the last day or two, myself included. I have done us all a favour by removing all of the comments from view.

5) Please take this opportunity of a clean slate to rethink your actions with a clear head and put them in perspective. Be funny, be smart, be mature.

6) Things you write on the internet stick around for ever. It seemd like a funny idea at the time to have mean tags and suchlike, but really, does the poor man deserve to be haunted for a lifetime over one article in his career? How would you feel if that happened to you.

7) If your blog never criticises anything, then ignore this next point. Personally, I have written many critical reviews of restaurants on my blog. I certainly wouldn't like it if all restaurant owners were themselves a community of bloggers who banded together to taunt me every time I had a negative opinion about dining out. If you wouldn't like that either - then please think twice before you post your thoughts on this Food and Wine piece.

8) Read the article again. Read it carefully and make sure you really understand what he is saying. As I pointed out before, he makes a lot of very good points worth heeding.
As bloggers we should absolutely be big enough to accept criticism, to learn from it and be capable of improving our output because of it.

9) I am sure Mr Wells is man enough to take criticism himself - he even jokes in the article that he may well have been hit by the snarky writings of Gastropoda too. The man obviously has a sense of humour. Please, everyone, I ask you all to reconsider your reactions to this article and to demonstrate humility and strength in posting about it.

At this point, we all really do have something to prove.

And I would like to apoligize to Pete Wells personally for any upset cause to him by comments that were previously on this blog.

Sam
becksdotposhatgmaildotcom

PS I think it best there are no comments on this post. If anyone wants to rant and rave at me, I suggest they do it in a post on their own blog and not here. I can take it. Thank you.


PS - By allmeans keep blogging cheese sandwiches - nobody in these parts is going to complain about that!

Nubbit Blog Directory?

I rec'd the following comment on my blog this week. Has anyone ever heard of this or rec'd similar comments?

I wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate you on a very high quality Blog. I have personally added your Blog to the www.nubbit.com Blog directory as I feel it meets our high acceptance standards providing our site visitors the quality Blog content they are in search of.

Nubbit is a relatively new Blog directory still in its early stages of launch but traffic is already starting to increase ten fold. The nice thing about this site is that the number of Blogs is limited and all Blogs must meet an acceptable level of quality, such as yours.

Do to the fact that the majority of the Blogs currently listed in our directory were researched and added by the founders of nubbit.com rather than through the submission tool most sites are not aware of there listing other than the recent increases in traffic.

That said, as we grow and initiate many of the marketing programs over the coming months, we would love to also see an increase in links to our site.

We would like to invite you to place a link on your Blog. In doing so we will add you to the featured Blog rotation on the main page of the site as well as give your site proper notice in the Nubbit.com Blog.

Once again, congratulations, and feel free to drop us an email if you decide to add a link or just to say hi. Link options are endless however, a few options are available at the following website: http://www.nubbit.com/submit.htm

Congratulations and thanks in advance,
Branden Moskwa, co-founder
http://www.nubbit.com

Paper Chef # 15

Paper chef #15 is on!

This months ingredients are beets, pears, lime and, since Valentine Day is coming, Aphrodesiacs. The details can be found on Slurp and Burp.

Commonwealth Club Food Blogger write-up

{hmmm. what does this code mean?}

Anyway I have written up the Commonwealth Club's event and it will be in Bay Area Bites Friday Feb 10 at 8 am PST. I linked this very site as I know it was one of the places which posted an announcement. It was kinda fun to be a reporter. I think I need a hat next time though.

Losing track of comments?

Then try coComment at http://www.cocomment.com

It's still in the beta stage but I gave them my email and they invited me to try it. seems like its oing to make life a lot easier although it doesn't support Movable Type.

It lets you also track the sites other people are commenting on and seems pretty cool.

(Misc) Congrats to Fellow Food Bloggers Mentioned in Upcoming F&W Issue

COMMENTS ON THIS POST HAVE BEEN STOPPED AND HIDDEN BECAUSE SOME OF THEM GET TOO PERSONAL AND GO FURTHER THAN IS NECESSARY IN MAKING A POINT. RANT AT ME IF YOU WILL FOR MY DECISION. I WILL NOT BE CHANGING MY MIND, OR ANSWERING ANY EMAILS ON THE SUBJECT. THANK YOU FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING WHICH I WILL EXPLAIN FURTHER BUT NOT TIL THINGS HAVE CALMED DOWN A BIT - Sam Breach

Just got this in an e-mail; here's a sneak peak at a food blogging article in the upcoming March Food & Wine magazine. Congrats on the mention!

BLOG BLACK BOOK

Columnist Pete Wells looks beyond the boring "cheese-sandwich" genre of
blog to celebrate idiosyncratic ones that make him say "Wow!" Find his list of must-reads below, and get all the details in the March issue of F&W.

Food Porn Watch - http://foodpornwatch.arrr.net
Deep End Dining - http://deependdining.blogspot.com
Noodlepie - http://www.noodlepie.com
Slice - http://www.sliceny.com
Saute Wednesday - http://www.sautewednesday.com
The Food Section - http://www.thefoodsection.com
Gastropoda - http://www.gastropoda.com
The Bruni Digest - http://brunidigest.blogspot.com
Plus, check out the Seven Best Wine Blogs.

http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/seven-best-wine-blogs


This post was written by Sweetnicks from Sweetnicks

Dine and Dish no. 6 - Amazing Graze

hi hi food blog s'coolmates...

so i have finally gotten off my lazy butt (procrastination killed me in "real" school, too) and announced dine and dish no. 6 - amazing graze. basically the theme is small plates.

our reservation is on monday, february 27th, 2006 :)

if you'd like to join in on the fun, the original post is here -->
dine & dish no. 6 - amazing graze

chow! ciao!
sarah

Disappearing Comments

Once on Saturday, and now again today, comments have simply vanished. I received notification through my email about the comment, and deleted it without thinking.

When I went back to the blog, the comment was nowhere to be found. I chalked it up to a glitch, but it happened again this morning. Is anyone else having this problem with Blogger? I couldn't find it under 'known issues'.

Food Blogger Face Off

Went to the Commonwealth Club's forum on Food Blogging last night. Nice presentations by Chez Pim; Vinography; 101 Cookbooks, and Saute Wednesday

Great turnout, about 130, mostly already blog readers, many bloggers themselves. The participants shared how their blogs got started; what, if any, their commerical revenue streams are; a few pet peeves; a bit about their creative process; what blogs they read (usually through RSS) and more.

You can check Blog Appetit for my write up. But to be honest, my post is really more of my own speculation on blogging's past, present and future as a reaction to the forum than it is a write up of the proceedings. If you do click on by and read it all (I apologize in advance for the length, but when one rants one losses track of time), I would love for you to leave your comments about your take on blogging.

Egg-citing cooking technique.

Who needs to hire a professional chef when you get great cooking tips like this forwarded to you by your friends?

Wymsey Weekend: A Guide to Mobile Cooking

Especially good for Los Angeles residents who want a quick, low-carb meal, but who don't have the resources to hire a Personal Chef. I guess...

Foodcandy

I received an invite to join Foodcandy. I spotted the odd blogger that I recognise, but I can't tell whether this is effectively a blog farm, or something of interest. I guess, the fact I can't tell probably means it's not of all that much interest. Anyone else heard of it/using it?
Cheers
Silverbrow

the Diets of Food Bloggers

I've been chewing on the concept of food blog identities and dieting. I've loved watching blogs come out from the dieting closet and disclose their issues and processes in their posts.

Its a good reminder of food loving realities, a revealation of quandries that many of us may already silently be going through.

I'm a bit ashamed to admit I've been holding back such revelations myself. While my blog name ironically gives room for weight watching connotations ( I love how many times this search phrase has popped up in my blog stats: how many points in a brownie? Thanks to the 'points' system for some of my traffic!) I'm afraid of turning away non dieting readers: kind of like the friend who is now a Mom and can't stop talking about her kids to her decidely non-breeding friends.

I like how Sam has handled this with her minute bottom of the post footnotes... a style I've love to copy.

Who else have you noticed is out of the diet closet?
Are you inspired
- to grab that salad
- or the chips instead?


-McAuliflower of Brownie Points Blog

Tonight I noticed that on both of my blogs, the banner graphics have disappeared. I use blogger's Sable templates, that have some nice graphics in the banner. Up until tonight, they were there. I'm having a few problems with this computer, and I'm wondering if it's just what I"M seeing or if EVERYONE sees it, too.

Could you please go to my blog http://cyndicooks.com and tell me if you see just a gray rectangle or if you see the banner with graphics that's supposed to be there.

(If you go to your template in blogger and pick "new", you can see what the Sable templates are supposed to look like)

If you see the correct banner, then I'll know it's just my computer. Please let me know. Thanks.

Chinese Lunar New Year Foods, Part 2: Sweet Treats

I was finally able to dig myself out from under my papers and books (the semester just started and I already have a test!) and put up my 2nd post in my series on the foods of Chinese Lunar New Year. This one is about sweet treats eaten over the new year holiday.

I hope you'll find it infomative, fun and interesting. You can find it here.

The post was written by Rose of The Hungry Rose.

Announcement: SHF #16 - Recipe for Love

It's short notice, but we've still got the weekend!

We're looking for your racy, seductive sweets for this month's Sugar High Friday. For more information visit the official announcement.

Post your creation next Friday.

This post written by Jennifer of Taste Everything Once.

Textpad or other text editors

I've been testing out Textpad for a few months and much prefer it for drafting my posts than either Typepad or MS Notepad. I'm interested to know what others use, if anything and what the pros and cons are.

For me, the advantage of Textpad is that it's not on-line which means posts are less likely to get lost. It allows you to record macros, it has standard html coding already embedded - so, for example I can include accents on words with great ease, and the viewing screen is straightforward and uncluttered. In summary, it makes my blogging life a bit easier. As I said, I've been testing it but am now thinking I should actually buy it, but if there is better software around, I'd be interested to know.
cheers
Posted by Silverbrow