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Last year around this time, the blogging world, in shock from the terrible disaster in
Indonesia, was responding with all its generosity of spirit and kitchen. That fervor continued throughout the year and,
it seemed, food bloggers felt imbued with the passion to change the world in whatever small way we could, even if it was
just creating pink
recipes to honor the fight against breast cancer.
And what is that saying? Charity begins at home? In August, a huge number of bloggers worldwide participated in an exercise in locality, challenging each other to eat as much from local vendors and farmers as possible.
My personal eat local campaign began with coffee (roasted locally) and continued with garlic. I'm lucky to live in a place from which lots of great products and produce hails; but I lusted over the local goodies in California and Provence. When we were done eating? We went around the world in a recycling bin.
Food
bloggers, and their readers, took their local charity to Kashmir this past month with Chez Pim's Menu for Hope, which ended up raising $21,716.32. Andrew Barrow and I both donated items (although I must
admit I practiced the two for me, one for you thing when I shopped for dried mushrooms at the
farmer's market).
Want more sayings? How 'bout pictures speak 1,000 words? This year was the year of Flickr and the prolific food photographers (and scanners). We licked our screen with food porn (from hot ice cream to mini mince pies to coffee cake), we got nostalgic with Mom's recipes, and we stood amazed at the wide number of folks taking pictures of airline "food." Andrew handed out his own "awards" for his favorite food porn blogs. We learned to lust after espresso crema. We hooked a culinary ride on the Amazing Race with carimoolas.
Come holiday time, we sat back and reflected on the true meaning of the holidays with the Spirit of Christmas series. Andrew Barrow introduced us to festive traditions of three bloggers, from the Nouvelle France of Carolyn Smith-Kizer, the Austria of Johanna, and the British-American hybrid of Sam.
Bloggers took us everywhere this year. They took us inside the dream of starting a bakery; into the chemistry of corn syrup; into the mind of a famous baker; into the menu planning of a "Hillbilly Housewife," and even into the workings of a kitchen equipment band. They gave us tips on a healthy lifestyle and investigated the phenomenon of noodleus doubleus.
Without you food bloggers, we wouldn't have eaten so well or so richly, we wouldn't have looked beyond our own food borders, we wouldn't have reached out so eagerly to help others. Thanks for making our year more delicious, you guys.
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