"bon appetit" news and stories

For many of us food bloggers out here, there's nothing more exciting than when a member of the old guard food media takes a moment to recognize the food and stories that we're putting out into the world. Bon Appétit, that storied publication, recently put aside some of their website space to feature 22 of their favorite food blogs (hooray for blogger recognition!).

It's a slide show that will make you hungry and start plotting out an after-work shopping list. Some of the featured blogs are the older, more established sites like Simply Recipes and Delicious Days while a few newcomers like Food Junta and Sassy Radish also made the list. Every single offering looks delicious and I'm delighted to see so many deserving bloggers get a bit of recognition. Congratulations to you all!

I know this may sound odd upon first impression, but give this recipe a chance. Perfect if you're looking to switch up hors d'oeuvres at a upcoming party or even just a snack- these open faced sandwiches combine the fresh, crisp taste of the radish with the crunch of sea salt. Both butter and salt will mellow out the bite a radish tends to have.

Tip: A mandoline will become your best friend if you have one for this recipe.

Getting together for dinner and a movie can be one of the most prosaic (Domino's and Blockbuster) of gatherings. But it can become something significantly more special if the food and the visuals connect.

When I was a broke, just-outta-high school teen, my roommates and I would host Godfather parties, for which we'd make a lot of pasta, get some jugs of cheap wine and follow the rule of shouting "Godfather!" then clinking and drinking every time someone got whacked.

There was a "cases of champagne and little black dresses" Breakfast at Tiffany's birthday party, but the master of the art was my great friend Mr. Diva, who threw annual, movie-themed award show parties, paying homage to Picnic (fried chicken) or Blue Velvet (cherry pie and PBR).

I spent some time yesterday afternoon talking with Tanya Steel, editor-in-chief of Epicurious, about everything from her weeknight dinners to the cookbook she's releasing this fall. It was an honor to speak with Ms. Steel, who has written for Food and Wine, Bon Appetit, the New York Times, and appeared on numerous TV programs, including the Today Show (the list goes on). After our conversation, I can absolutely see her energy and enthusiasm in the pages of Epicurious. Talk about a foodie!

I've noticed a lot of changes on Epicurious in the past year or so – new blogs and features. What's the idea behind this new content?
I came to Epicurious in July 2005, and I found a site that I loved with tremendous depth, but not a lot of breadth. We needed to broaden out the site to make it the go-to site for people who love to eat and love cooking and love food. I knew that we had a fantastic recipe database, so we added restaurant coverage, a huge thing on drinks. We added video, and a blog that I started – for a while I was the only one writing. We spent some time not only broadening our coverage and trying to get notable names on the site, but we also took a look at the site, which was over 12 years old, and we realized it was time to make it look as rich and interesting as the content. We spent a good part of last year looking at the inner plumbing of the site, and we launched [the redesign] last September. I've never worked so hard, and it was incredibly rewarding to create a food site from the ground up. I thought, "What would I like? What kind of site would I like and how would I create it? We are still rolling out features throughout this year. There are going to be upgrades and additions this year and next.

Any chance you can give us some hints about these upcoming features?
One of the things that we are going to be doing is expanding our community section. We have always had a vibrant, passionate community of people – up to six million unique [visitors] in December. They love to talk to each other. We have ten forums, and realize this is something to increase. We made a deal with Facebook, and realize that a lot of people would love to have more social networking on our site. We are blowing out something called "My Epicurious" – people will be able to upload a photo of themselves, they can already tag interests. They will be able to upload pictures so people can see what they are cooking now. They will be able to join interest groups. For example, if they are interested in it cuisines, they will be able to see everything having to do with that interest group, like new Italian recipes and posts, anything to do with Italy.

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