"CarolBlymire" news and stories

As we talk about the joys of holiday baking and plans for the annual Christmas Eve buffet, it's important to remember that in the midst of our abundance, there are many children who are going hungry each day (one out of every six, to be exact).

Food blogger Carol Blymire, of Alinea at Home (previously of French Laundry at Home), is working with Share Our Strength this year (as she has in past years) to raise funds to feed these hungry kids. Just a few dollars can make a huge difference in the life of a child. Here's what Carol has to say about the campaign this year.

I work with Share Our Strength all year long, but I wanted to do a special campaign on this blog this holiday season and I've sweetened the pot, so to speak. We've created a dedicated Alinea at Home Share Our Strength campaign, and if you click on that page and make a donation, you'll be entered to win some really cool prizes -- the wonderful team at Alinea is donating five Alinea cookbooks, and my friends at Workman/Artisan have donated two copies of Thomas Keller's new sous vide book, Under Pressure.

So if you feel moved, make a donation. You'll be doing a good deed and giving yourself a chance at winning one of two cool cookbooks.

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It's been just over a week since Marisa mentioned the end of Carol Blymire's French Laundry at Home, and now we've got the final recipe: "Cornets" -- Salmon Tartare with Sweet Red Onion Creme Fraiche. A simple, buttery cone filled with onion creme fraiche and some chopped salmon tartare? It sounds like a nice and delicious end to me, and as Carol describes it, the cornets are "Perfect. Absolutely perfect."

With this, she has done the whole cookbook. The end. But this is one of those times when language fails to adequately describe the power of reality. Think of it this way: Whether we're cooking a Thanksgiving dinner, making a difficult cake, throwing a dinner party, or cooking something beyond our comfort zone, it's ONE meal. The hours from prep to plating fly by, and then we sit down, exhausted and fulfilled. Now imagine that feeling 100 times over, with many intricate and difficult recipes spread out over a couple of years -- all set to a kickass playlist. Carol is the home kitchen's Wonder Woman.

On to Alinea at Home!

Last summer (the one before the one we just wrapped up), I wrote about a food blog called French Laundry at Home. By this point, I'm fairly certain you've heard of it. Written by the very talented Carol Blymire, it chronicled her journey as she cooked her way through the entirety of the French Laundry Cookbook. She's been cooking now for nearly two years and the blog is drawing to a close. It has been a hugely successful project, bringing into Carol's life many friends, myriad new experiences and potential new career paths.

However, Carol isn't one to rest on her laurels. She announced that her next big project would be to cook her way through the recently released Alinea cookbook. For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, Alinea is a restaurant in Chicago that exists on the cutting edge of food and flavor. For those of you who are like me, you won't want to miss this one, so make sure to tune your RSS readers to Alinea at Home.

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It all started when Julie Powell decided her life needed additional meaning and purpose. She opened up Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, created a blog and, a book and movie deal later, the rest is history. She created a genre of blogging, in which people take on the entirety of a cookbook and blog/cook their way through its contents.

An article in today's Wall Street Journal, entitled, Latest Web Bloggers Give Cooking the Books a Whole New Meaning, Lee Gomes explores the crop of blogs that have sprouted up in the last few years that take on entire cookbooks. He calls this practice "cook-through" blogs and calls out several notable blogs that are currently cooking their way through volumes of recipes.

When it comes to this genre of food blogging, I've enjoyed reading Carol Blymire's French Laundry at Home and I'm excited to explore another site mentioned in the article, Ryan S. Adams' Nose to Tail at Home. I think part of the enjoyment comes from the fact that these blogs all me the vicarious thrill of this type of cooking, without the expense or clean up. How about the rest of you? Do you love cook-through blogs or hate 'em?

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