We've Moved

Effective today, August 5th, we have a new home. Please come visit!

www.foodalogue.com

And the winner is...

Sam from My Carolina Kitchen. She gets to choose between the palm leaf plates, mushroom sampler or dried chile sample, thanks to Marx Foods. Congrats!

In the category 'other news', I hope to be debuting my redesigned blog later this week...fingers crossed!

First Anniversary: Give-Away

In honor of my first anniversary, our friends at Marx Foods have offered to send one of my readers a gift:

Your choice of:

• a 25-pack of rectangle palm leaf plates

• 8 varieties of dried mushrooms

• a 10-pack of dried chiles

The winner will be picked at random from comments left on this post and yesterday's first anniversary post.

Good luck!

P.S. FOODalogue may go dark for a few days while the redesign is completed. To those of you who follow me on Blogger, I hope you will bookmark FOODalogue or subscribe via RSS feed (http://foodalogue.com).

First Anniversary: Confessions, Observations, Reflections, Assessments, Announcements

Photo credit nullalux
We're celebrating! One year ago FOODalogue went live and in the vernacular of the over-used and the cliché...it's been quite a ride!

This is the 147th post.

Confessions

I found out that blogging is personal...it really is! And comments matter. They really do! Once I hit 'publish', I anxiously await them.

With blogging, you put your best creative effort forward and it's exciting to know that more than one person (me) appreciates it.

I must also confess to being somewhat obsessive about my blog and community-building efforts. True, it's given me a great deal of satisfaction, but it has also sapped a great deal of my time. Other things have been neglected in the process. I've excused it because I was in the 'building stage', but now I either have to find more balance in my life or a new excuse for Year 2.

Observations

When I started my blog I thought my fan base would be family and friends, all of whom I signed up for e-mail subscriptions. Over the year, that list dwindled. Many who I thought would care or be interested, apparently, did not care/were not interested. But, I gained over 50 followers on Blogger and close to 200 subscribers via RSS feeds. I now interact almost exclusively with other food bloggers.

Reflections

What I've learned about cooking:

I still go into the kitchen with reckless abandon. I don't follow recipes (not even my own), but I have become more thoughtful about technique and presentation (aiming for the "money shot" - see below).

What I've learned about photography:

Slow down, concentrate, focus, and know when to put my glasses on! I really should step up from my point & shoot camera, but my son keeps reminding me that I don't have the temperament (read: patience) required.

What I've learned about blogging.

I've learned so much that I recently taught a 6-hour seminar for an Adult Ed program called "How to Create a Blog for Fun & Profit".

What I don't know about blogging could cover the distance between the galaxy and me! A year ago computer-speak like html, css, rss, pixels, links, etc. was a foreign language. Now the words trip off my tongue. I still struggle - some days are better than others. Lately I've been feeling very stupid as I transition my blog to a new format.

But,

• I've learned that the answer to almost every question can be found by typing the question on google.

• I've learned that all things seemingly mysterious and incomprehensible can generally be resolved by going to a help/support forum. Someone, somewhere had a similar experience.

• I've learned there are generally work-arounds for the insurmountable.

• I've learned that the internet is like free-falling into an abyss -- every link leads to another. Sometimes I forget where I started and why!

• I'm learning my away around in social media. You can follow me on twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook...if I ever think of something witty and smart to say!

• I've learned to accept that I'll never know or understand everything in our technological world. I'm happy with that. My head is about to explode anyway.

What I've learned about food bloggers.

Food bloggers are a warm and welcoming community. You might think that because it's a creative endeavor bloggers would be guarded about the information they share. They're not. It's exactly the opposite. I'm proud to be involved with the community-at-large. I actually feel that I've made many new friends -- all over the world!

I'm also proud to be part of BloggerAid - Changing the Face of Famine, a charitable organization formed to help erase worldwide hunger, especially as it relates to children. This group works under the auspices of the World Food Programme and will be publishing a cookbook later this year with over 100 recipes. The book will be sold on Amazon and all proceeds will go directly to the charity.

Assessments

I definitely would like to monetize my effort but I wonder if ads are really the way to go. Like most bloggers, over time, I've placed ads on my sidebars and feeds. I don't particularly like the aesthetic and it's added practically nothing to the blogging balance sheet. I've come to realize that not many people (myself included) look at the sidebar, especially when it's peppered with ads -- and hardly no one clicks through. At least not on FOODalogue. My google ads have brought in less than $50 and that's being held captive at Googleville until it reaches $100.

Announcements

• FOODalogue is switching from the blogger platform to wordpress.org. Like many of you, blogger served me well in the beginning but I've been feeling constricted. There was so much more I wanted to do and I was getting increasingly frustrated. So I bit the bullet. Details of the experience will accompany the debut. It wasn't easy.

• I'm planning to do another "Culinary Tour Around the World", different countries, a few different rules...probably in the Fall or early next year. What do you think?

• Once my new blog goes live and I've introduced you to all the new features, I'm going to take a real hard look at where FOODalogue has been and where it's going...hopefully, to the bank! :)

Sincere thanks to all of you for your support, encouragement and interest over the past year.

Come back tomorrow for a celebratory giveaway!

Mushroom Tasting Dinner • 4 Varieties, 4 Recipes

What to do with small amounts of 4 different exotic dried mushrooms? I thought about a mixed saute that could be put in some puff pastry, but that seemed like a cop-out. I thought about a cream soup but I really didn't feel like making soup. Besides, since I wanted to taste the flavor of each variety, I decided to rehydrate them and give them a quick saute separately...a little olive oil and a garlic clove in each pan.

Though I don't think any of the varieties originate in Italy and though it wasn't my plan, the Italianess in me came out and I made a 4-course tasting dinner with distinctly Italian flavors. When I decided which way I was going, I added a splash of Sweet Vermouth to the Maitake mushrooms, a splash of white wine to the Dried Lobster mushrooms, and some marsala to the Morels. I like to splash around in the kitchen.

Escarole Salad of Warm White Beans & Maitake Mushrooms

Added about 1T of minced ham, a little Sweet Vermouth and about 1/2 can of Goya small white beans to the mix and warmed everything to meld flavors. Dressed with a little olive oil and cider vinegar. Served over crisp fresh Escarole.

Lobster Mushroom Calzone

The mushrooms were sauteed in white wine and mixed with roasted yellow peppers and layered with ricotta seasoned with salt, pepper and parmigiana cheese. The dough, truth be told, is store bought thin pizza dough (I think Pillsbury) from the refrigerator biscuit section. I used about 1/3 for this dish (making 2) and the rest for...

Black Trumpet Flatbread Pizza

Brushed the dough with pasta sauce and layered it with thinly sliced leeks, sweet red peppers, crumbled ricotta salada and the mushrooms. Baked at 400 degrees.

Fettuccine with Morel Cream Sauce

The mushrooms, as noted, were sauteed with a little olive oil, 1 clove of garlic, and a splash of Marsala wine. I blended some fresh basil, a few walnuts, S&P into about 1/2C of ricotta and then mixed that with about 1/2C of cream and folded it into the mushrooms. Finished the dish with a fresh grating of nutmeg.

While these may not be the usual applications for these exotic mushrooms, we can attest to having a fabulous - and fun - dinner. My thanks to Marx Foods, an online purveyor of fine and exotic food products. I've been following their blog for a while and beside culinary tips and recipes from Chef Matthew, the company very generously often offers food bloggers an opportunity to sample some of their products. I got real lucky on this one!

Note: In case you want to make this dinner, mushroom titles link to info/order page on Marx Foods site.

I Ate • BOSTON, Part 4/Series End, Lobster

On the way to the airport for our trip home, my son had the taxi stop while he picked up two live 2-lb. lobsters to bring home as a souvenir/surprise for his girlfriend, Julie.

I asked Jim to save the carcasses for me thinking I would make a stock, but was I ever delighted when I got the goodie bag. They don't eat lobsters like I do. I utilize the Hoover Vacuum approach. Nothing is left but the shells...and I've been known to chew on them too.

Their shells still had a little residue meat here and there...and all of the red roe from 2 female lobsters! OMG, score! I decided to make Fettucine with a Lobster Roe Pasta Sauce and Roe-Stuffed Scallops.

Lobster Redux

The Sauce. I scraped every morsel I could find out of the shells and reserved them to the side. In a pan, I sauteed garlic in a little olive oil, then added the scrapings and all the roe (except about 1/2T) and a 1/2 cup of white wine which I let cook down a bit. I then added about 1-1/2 cups of pasta sauce and fresh basil.

The Pasta. When the water came to a boil, I dunked the lobster shells in it for a moment to capture any residual flavor before dropping in the pasta.

The Scallops. I just seasoned them, coated them with a little olive oil and made a little slit in the top and inserted the remaining roe. I pan-sauteed them and then finished them under the broiler for a minute since I didn't want to flip them in the pan and risk losing the roe.

To Finish. I added a little cream to the pasta sauce making it a rosé.

Served: 2 very happy people.

And thus ends the travelogue about celebrating July 4th in Boston. Hope you enjoyed it.