Shauna James Ahern, the powerhouse blogger behind the Gluten-Free Girl has written a book about her experience having celiac disease and the process of going gluten-free. The beautiful thing about this book is that she writes about embracing the world of foods that she can eat instead of focusing on the things her body can't handle.

I've only had a chance to flip through it in the bookstore, but I have my sights set on getting my own copy soon. However, for the last two weeks, super-star food bloggers from all over the country have had their hands on the book and have been writing about their own experiences going gluten-free for a day in a virtual book tour. They talk about the challenges they faced in altering their diets and nearly all expressed admiration for Shauna, her attitude towards food and the lovely book she has created. These posts makes me all the more interested in reading it from start to finish (as opposed to in bits, standing up in the aisle of Barnes and Noble).

You've been reading our ramblings here at Slashfood for over a year now, so isn't it about time you get to know us? We like to play 20 questions with our bloggers, just so you can see what kind of insanity is cooking in our brains. And kitchens. We've already met Nick, Joe, and one of our illustrious leads, Nicole. Let's meet NY-based Jonathan Forester, who definitely knows his drinks.

-- Sarah J. Gim

Do you have a personal blog?

As opposed to most of the other Slashfood bloggers I don't have a personal blog, just a simple website www.JonathanForester.com, which I don't update much. I have so many hot pans on the stove, that blogging other than Slashfood would be impossible right now.

er, what do you do when you're not food blogging?
That's quite complicated; I do quite a few wildly differing things. I like being my own boss and having the option to take off a few weeks or months here and there to travel. I am a food & travel writer and a consulting chef/food & beverage business consultant. I am also partner in Winterport Winery and am opening Penobscot Bay Distillery & Brewery in Winterport, Maine. I used to be a mental health counselor and personal coach. I also worked as a corporate trainer/seminar presenter, an outdoor and wilderness educator, licensed wilderness guide, Outward Bound Instructor, and professional outdoorsman, and am also licensed to work with reptiles, including endangered species and venomous ones, and I occasionally do some work for beer, wine, and spirits companies. I also worked in the tobacco industry as a cigar/pipe expert, and designing pipe tobacco blends. In addition I have done a gazillion other fun things and plan on doing many more.

I don't know about you, but I'm running a bit behind schedule this year. I don't even have my 2007 wall calendar - which I would normally tack up next to my computer - yet! Fortunately, there are lots of great food calendars of there to choose from (and some are even on sale!). Here are a couple of favorites, for late shoppers like me:

The Peeps Calendar is perfect for anyone looking for a sugar high and the Play with Your Food Calendar is all about having fun with food, reinventing ordinary fruits and vegetables into new creatures. A third oddball calendar is Hot Sauce!, which features photography of hot sauce 'scapes and labels.

The Joy of Cooking Desk Calendar will supplement your recipe collection with some favorites from the newest edition, and you can find regional favorites in Mediterranean Cuisine and Mexican Cuisine. Opt for Desserts for something sweeter.

And if wine and spirits are more appealing to you than food, try The Wine Companion Calendar or the Cocktail-a-day calendar, because it's always five o'clock somewhere.

The pros aren't the only ones with calendars - food bloggers have some out there, as well. Bron Marshall's features some of her best photography (it's downloadable and completely free!), as does Habeas Brulee's calendar.

There are too many to choose from. It's a good thing I have a lot of wall space!

Over the last week or so, we got some fantastic holiday dinner ideas from a lot of our food blogging friends. First, we were inspired by turkey and stuffing recipes, and then were moved on to some delicious side dishes. No big feast would be complete without dinner rolls or some kind of bread, and so we got some wonderful ideas for breads to serve, too. As we come down to the wire for Thanksgiving, we're finishing up our little series with a look at some outstanding desserts.

• The gold standard of Thanksgiving desserts is the pumpkin pie. There are several recipes to choose from for this category, including the Accidental Hedonist's fresh pumpkin pie, a back-of-the-can pumpkin pie, or a do-it yourself pie that sill uses canned pumpkin.
• Sweet potato pie is also a favorite, and the pie at Simply Recipes has a pecan topping which will add a nicely contrastive crunch.
• You can't go wrong with apple pie, and our detailed homemade apple pie recipe shows you what every step should look like.
• The Homesick Texan shares a pecan pie recipe from her grandmother - and grandmothers almost always make the best pies.
• Elizabeth Ryan's cranberry pie (pictured) at Kitchen Chick will add a huge boost of color to your meal.
• If pies aren't your favorite, you could always opt for Alpineberry's Creamy Pumpkin Cheesecake with Ginger-Pecan Crust.
• One Whole Clove gets some chocolate into her pumpkin dessert with a Pumpkin Bundt Cake with Chocolate Glaze and Pumpkin-Chocolate Truffle Center.
• And to really impress guests, bring out Pumpkin Seed Brittle and Burnt Sugar Ice Cream from Tartelette.

In our quest for a great set of Thanksgiving recipes, we've already seen the recipes from a lot of our favorite bloggers. First, we tackled the turkey and stuffing and then we moved on to the side dishes. Today, we're looking at some great ideas for breads to serve along with the meal. Carbs may be filling, but you need something to soak up all that extra gravy, right?

• First, we have some Pumpkin Thyme Dinner Rolls from Wednesday Chef, which have a lot of flavor and a lovely color from the pumpkin.
• Nothing goes better with gravy than real Southern Biscuits from Andrea's Kitchen with White Lily flour. If you can't find white Lily, try this recipe instead, as it uses all purpose.
• This is a great time to try your hand at the ever-popular no-knead bread (recipe in the comments)
• Cornbread is a classic Thanksgiving option with a great texture. Many prefer skillet cornbread, as Meathenge does, but sweet cornbread, is a popular option, too.
• Culinary in the Desert's Roasted Garlic and Fresh Rosemary Cloverleaf Rolls (pictured) are delicious even without a feast to accompany them.
• Popovers, like Orangette's, are light, quick-cooking and very impressive when served. They're good for sopping up gravy and juices, but are also fantastic with jam in the morning.
• Parker House Rolls are the gold standard of dinner rolls and will be a favorite with everyone at the table. Take the advice from Humble Pie and keep some butter on hand when serving.
• If you prefer to have a whole grain bread for dinner, try a loaf of Maple Whole-wheat Bread, which Seriously Good said had a "nutty sweetness" and certainly looks seriously good.

Food bloggers take particular pleasure in sharing their favorite foods, recipes and food news with other bloggers online, but like most people, we still find that human interaction is nice on occasion. It was exactly this thought that spawned Blogging by Mail in the first place, a "real" (i.e. non-digital) event to let bloggers from around the world connect. The round from earlier this summer is closed, as is the last edition of Canadian Blogging by Post, which is a similar event that is limited to Canadian bloggers only. In fact, take a look at then roundup of entries from CBBP to see what you may have missed out on.

Inspired? If you're a food blogger interested in signing up for the newest edition of Blogging by Mail, which is open to bloggers from all over the world, head over to Dispensing Happiness and sign up soon. The deadline for this edition is this Thursday, November 18th and the theme is holiday foods.

Snack had a great piece on what she will not write about, along with a "will not write" list from other food writers. At the top of her list of no-gos were "hatchet jobs," where a negative article/review is written just to write something negative or tear someone down. The other writers all agreed that they didn't want to do those types of pieces either. Anthony Bourdain said that the overly "happy" pieces weren't for him and neither are restaurant reviews. Peter Elliot won't write any idea that he didn't come up with himself, and Michael Ruhlman strongly prefers to, as well.

This topic poses an interesting question for food bloggers, though. Even though not all (not by a longshot!) food bloggers are professional writers or journalists, there are still things that each will and won't write about. So tell us, because we care about the rest of the writers and not just the pros, what won't you write about on your food blog? Do you do recipes, but not restaurant reviews? Photos, but not recipes? Do you write for your audience, or just for yourself?

Chubby Hubby snapped this shot of a Full English breakfast while out to brunch with his wife, reviewing a restaurant. A Full English breakfast, also called a fry-up, is oily, fatty, filling and basically the perfect way to get breakfast started if you are one of the following: English, don't worry about cholesterol, or - according to a number of very insistent people - are trying to recover from a hang-over. The components of the meal will vary slightly from place to place, but they generally include almost all of the following: bacon, fried eggs, baked beans, sausages, tomatoes (fried), mushrooms (also fried), toast , juice and tea or coffee. Personally, I feel full just looking at this picture for too long, but if you're ever had a good fry up, or been at the table when one is served, you probably already know that the smell is good enough to overcome feelings of fullness. You might want to try whipping one up at home on a weekend morning, though you also might want to consider going for a little jog around the block before you do.

The limited edition Kit Kats released in the UK resulted in consumer overstimulation and, in the US, too, consumers are seeing more and more limited editions on the shelves. Some of them seem to be only limited in their packaging, not the actual product.

Candybloggers Cybele, from CandyBlog, and Brian, from Candy Addict, were interviewed in a piece in the New York Times magazine that asked "what is the point of these releases?" The companies don't seem like they're asking consumers if they want to see them as part of the "regular" line-up, but there are so many limited edition candies on store shelves that they don't seem all that special anymore.

Personally, I don't mind seeing a new product every time I go into the store, but it can be annoying if a new favorite is never seen again after only a short run. There is no way for us, the consumers, to tell if this trend will continue or not - but do we want it to?

Many of us have food blogs, but for us, blogging is a recent development in our lives. Maybe you've been blogging a year. Maybe two years. For Meg Hourihan, blogging has been her career for a long time. In fact, she's the co-founder of Pyra Labs, created in 1999, the company that created the blogging software, blogger.That's right, the software about a gajillion of us use to create our own blogs. She's kind of a techie celebrity.

Meg has her own personal blog called megnut, on which she has been blogging about her daily life and interests which include food, travel, women's rights, and obviously, technology. Lately it seems, though, that megnut could be called "nutmeg," for all of the posting she's done on food.

Has Meg decided to fully join us in the food blogosphere? Cool! She does a lot of "news" items, posts recipes of things she cooks, and her photos are hosted separately on flickr. Pretty soon, everyone will have a food blog. Oh wait, except for my Mom and your Uncle Bob in Omaha, everyone does have a food blog.

You've been reading our ramblings here at Slashfood for months now, so isn't it about time you get to know us? Over the next few weeks, we'll be playing 20 questions with our Slashfood bloggers, just so you can see what kind of insanity is cooking in our brains. And kitchens. We've already met Nick, Stefania, Andrew, and Joe. This week, we welcome a brand new blogger to Slashfood, Heather Craven.

Do you have a personal blog? 
I do. It mostly chronicles my daily ramblings about my three children and my skills, or sometimes the lack of, parenting them.

What is your day job, or rather, what do you do when you're not food blogging?
I chase my toddler, try to find matching socks for my brood and figure out healthy food choices for us all.

How long have you been blogging with slashfood and what is your favorite post?
I am spanking new on Slashfood. I have been toiling away on The Life Sciences blog since late 2005.

Do you have any non-food-related, non-blogging hobbies?
I live in the mountains of Colorado so we have a fairly active outdoor life. I love to mountain bike, hike and ski. I also love to paint and read.

Not every foodie does, but do you cook?
Not very successfully. I like to accessorize. I can decorate a mean table, make children's food look spectacular and bake fun goodies.

What is your most prized utensil/gadget in the kitchen?
I have a lovely new red tea kettle. Its happy presence has prompted me to buy a red toaster oven and I am pondering the purchase of a red garbage can to round out the color splash.

The Independent Food Festival and Awards is an online event dedicated to the idea that people should share their favorite foods and food experiences to help rekindle a love of and interest in food in general. Judging by the fact that the event seems to be several times the size of last year's festival, this second annual event seems to be a success so far. 

You may have seen their logo on some of your favorite food blogs last year, when 30 well-known blogs were selected to act as jury members and contribute a favorite food-related thing to the online festival. Every jury member creates their own award and awards it as they see fit. The bloggers' awards are being announced over the course of five days, since there are quite a few more participants than last year. Since all the categories and awards are independently generated, it is difficult to say what you might expect to find amongst the nominees, but it is certain to be something delicious judging from the entries so far.

Raise your hand if you have heard the phrase "cheese sandwich blog" before. Don't worry if you haven't, since it isn't as widely used today as it was when it first cropped up back in early 2002.

Pete Wells, of Food & Wine Magazine, may not be familiar with food blogs, but he appears to be quite well versed in the use of outdated terminology. In an article for the magazine this month, he uses the term to slam more than a few food bloggers as being trite and uninteresting, criticizing everything from the photography to the topics blogged about.

The sites he does recognize as being worthy of his notice are excellent, including Deep End Dining and Food Porn Watch, the aggregator that lists hourly updates of hundreds of food blogs. Since the author is based in Brooklyn, he also naturally gravitates towards blogs like the Brunei Digest. Entertaining though it is, the Digest is not a food blog as much as it is a make-fun-of-Frank-Brunei blog, and is largely irrelevent to people who live outside the Greater New York Area.

Are you one of those people that can waste an entire day wandering aimlessly around Whole Foods or Dean and Deluca, buying nothing but tasting everything? Do you find yourself constantly getting invited to potlucks thrown by friends of friends of acquaintances, just because somebody told somebody who told somebody else about this thing you do with three kinds of cheese and a sliced apple? Do you take pictures of every freakin' thing you eat?

Slashfood is looking for a couple of obsessive foodies who want to translate their passion for great eating into great blogging. Style wise, we're looking for Ruth Reichl with the volume turned up. Actually, come to think of it, that would essentially make you Anthony Bourdain. Well, hey Tony – if you're available ...

Interested? Send us three 100-300 word sample posts. And spread the word – Slashfood knows no national boundaries.