2013 in Review

I debated posting something like this, since I only updated six months of the year. That's not really a full year. But I feel like I've done some of my strongest writing in those six months and there's a couple things I'd like to highlight.

More husband's doing nice things for me!

My most popular recipe in 2013 was hands down, the Holiday Baked Brie Appetizer. It's been viewed over a thousand times, which makes it the second most popular piece I've written here. Why did this one take off? One word: Pinterest. I started a Pinterest board for Northside Food a few months ago and I've been pinning my recipes there to see how they do. My Baked Brie seems to hit that magic Pinterest button of looking extremely fancy, but also being easy to reproduce. And I got it up during that magical pre-holiday window when everyone is party planning (or at least wishing they were).

My other most popular topic last year was Roswell's food truck park. Food trucks are hot, hot, hot right now and everyone was looking for more information about Roswell's first, stumbling steps towards jumping on this trend. Hopefully there will be more action on this front in 2014 and I'll have the time to write about it. Food trucks are pretty fun, even if the food is just as hit or miss as any new restaurant venture.

My most popular restaurant review wasn't even a restaurant. It was Wolf Mountain Winery in Dahlongah, Georgia. I spent a day there with my husband and enjoyed the scenery, a wine tasting and the cafe. My second most popular review was a write up of Little Alley's brunch service, which many people aren't aware of. Both of these were things my husband did as surprises for me. So the big lesson here is that he needs to do this more often.

More pizzas!

My biggest "I can't believe I didn't write this up yet" was the meal I had at Osteria Mattone back in freakin' November. Getting sick twice in December, plus holiday and end of semester lunacy kept me from updating here. I did upload the pictures here and still plan to write it up as soon as I get a chance.

Some other things I did, but didn't post about: meeting Deb Perelman and getting words of encouragement to come back to blogging, multiple attempts to make a chocolate chili poundcake that all ended badly, starting and not finishing a write up of the small taquerias that litter Alpharetta highway and this fantastic, tiny winery we found when we went apple picking in Elijay back in October.

I don't do New Year's Resolutions, but looking over my posts from the last six months, I'm noticing some trends I want to correct. I want to post fewer desserts and snacks and more vegetables and meals. I want to talk more about the cooking and lifestyle changes we've made to accommodate my husband's diabetes. I also want to go back and revisit some of the recipes I wrote in the early days of the blog. Most of them I've changed significantly since I first posted them and I want you to have the best version. I've already revisited my Kale and Sausage soup, but there's plenty more that need an update. And I'd like to continue with the regular posts here.

Overall, I think I'm in a good place with Northside Food. It reflects who I am and how I eat. I'd like to continue doing that.

Update on Roswell Food Truck Park

I was in San Antonio last week for the annual World Science Fiction Convention ("WorldCon"). Those of you who follow me on Facebook saw the pictures of me eating my way through Texas barbecue and delicious Tex Mex. While I was gone, I apparently caused a ruckus. I love causing a ruckus.

Delicious banh mi knock off from the Pho Sho truck.

So a few weeks ago, I blogged here about how annoyed I was with the seating situation at Don White park when the food trucks are present. Don White has a really nice pavilion with covered seating, but it had been rented out for a private event while I was visiting. My post was read by Joan Durbin at the Roswell Neighbor and passed on to the city. Well, while I was in San Antonio, Joan contacted me to let me know that the city agreed with my article and would be updating their policy to reflect that. Cool!

This is why I love the online world of blogs and forums so much. I can feel connected and contribute to a community while sitting on the couch in my jammies.

Anyways, it's a gorgeous Saturday and I need to go pick up my CSA. The food trucks are at the park this weekend and will be for a few more weeks. You can see the schedule on their Facebook page. Enjoy!


Like my poorly lit iPhone pictures? I'm on Flickr now! And you can like me on Facebook!

Northside Food Quoted in Roswell Neighbor

I was pretty excited to hear that this blog was going to be quoted in the Roswell Neighbor today. It's that kind of feedback that makes me happy I've come back to blogging.

Anyways, reporter Joan Durbin quoted parts of my open letter to the City of Roswell about pavilion rentals at Don White park when the food trucks are there. Durbin quite correctly points out that if covered seating is available, folks can still enjoy the food trucks during mildly inclement weather. Roswell is becoming a dining destination of its own and if we can get this food truck thing figured out, it'll only get better. While I kvetch about seating and secretly wish that Yumbii would bring their Korean tacos up here to me, I'm pretty happy that Roswell is encouraging things like this.

Anyways, go read the article and tell us what you think.

Like my poorly lit iPhone pictures? I'm on Flickr now! And you can like me on Facebook!

Roswell Neighbor Article

The Roswell Neighbor did an article on local bloggers this week. I'm one of them. Hooray!

If you're one of the new readers brought here today, welcome! Here's what you need to know about this blog.

I love food. I love trying new recipes and eating new things. I stuffed my face full of Korean BBQ the other day and I loved it. I shop at local farmer's markets when I can. My cooking influences are mostly traditional southern food, with a healthy dash of Asian inspired cuisine. I love to bake, but so far I've been too impatient to manage a decent pie crust. But I do plenty of cakes, cookies and quick breads, along with an assortment of yeasted breads. I love finding hole in the wall places with fabulous food and sharing them. I am not a fan of chains, or fast food (unless it is Chik fil a).  My weakness is Chinese take out. I'm a busy lady who is on a budget, but still wants to eat sustainable, healthy food.  This is what I write about.

When I'm not cooking or blogging, I'm a fan of science fiction and fantasy. I am best known as a fan of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. I run a programming track for it at Dragon*Con and I chair a convention dedicated to it here in Atlanta. I'm the kind of fan that gets early copies of the manuscript for the next Wheel of Time novel "for feedback". It's finally turned into a part time job doing microblogging and social networking for the publisher. If I disappear from blogging for awhile, it usually means that I'm either getting ready for a convention, or there's a Wheel of Time book coming out.  Yes, the whole thing is slightly ridiculous, but its also hella fun.

I hope you enjoy reading.

Ads on the Blog

My regular readers, who only know me from this blog and not my other social networks, will probably not know this. But I've been laid off. Prior to now, I taught social studies at a small private school here in Roswell. With the economy the way it is, the small school got smaller and they had to cut staff for the upcoming school year.  Since about 3000 other teachers were laid off from the public schools at the same time I was, job hunting has been less than fruitful.

Rather than lay on the floor and cry over it though, I've decided to see this as an opportunity to do things I've always wanted to do, but had trouble doing so because of my teaching schedule. The biggest one is getting my Master's degree. I'm also looking at part time jobs with flexible hours, so look for a post with happy news there in the future.

However, despite the best face I can put on things, we're still looking at a drastic cut in our household income after I receive my last paycheck at the end of this month.  So I've decided to monetize this blog.  I've never really taken the whole blogging thing seriously, which is why Northside Food has a small audience. However, things being what they are, I really can't ignore a potential source of mortgage payments.  So you'll be seeing some ads here now and some links to Amazon if I'm talking about a product you can buy there.  Don't feel obligated to click on anything (In fact, by my service agreement with AdSense, I'm not allowed to encourage you to click on ads.), but do understand that they are here to support me in my state of underemployment.

The upside of the ads is that now that they are here, I feel sort of obligated to stick to a reliable update schedule and make an effort to build my audience.  So you'll be hearing from me more frequently now.

Holiday Links

I think this nice, in between time between Christmas and New Years is my favorite part of the holidays. I'm off from work, but everything is done. There's no presents to buy, no cookies to bake, nothing that needs decorating. My husband has some time off, so we get to see movies together and have leisurely, late breakfasts of hot rolls and baked oatmeal. Usually I start futzing around for New Year's Eve celebrations at our house right about now, but my friend Diane is taking that on for us. So I get a nice, quiet week to catch up on housework and other projects.

In the spirit of that, here are some holiday appropriate links.

On the subject of brunch, I read two really great articles about preparing easy holiday brunches. Smitten Kitchen writes what I consider to be the definitive guide to holiday brunching. Her thesis? Easy, make ahead recipes that you can prep ahead of time, then throw in the oven the morning of while you shower. Gayle, of Grocery Cart Challenge fame, also submits some breakfast casserole recipes for holiday brunching in her weekly The Daily News column. While her recipe offerings tend to be a little heavy on the processed foods for my taste, two of these rely on fresh or frozen ingredients, which make them winners in my book.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I've seen some interesting links about holiday food drives that I thought I'd share. The first was a recent NYT article about the secret preference that food banks won't tell you about: Cash. But if you think about it, it makes sense. What on earth can they do with three cans of pickled artichoke hearts and a cellophane package of ditalini? We feel good taking cans out of our own pantry to give to those in need, but I think too many use it just as an excuse to dump unwanted food guilt free. There's a really good discussion on Chowhound regarding donations to food banks, that I found to be worth skimming.

For myself, I just cleaned out my pantry on Monday and set aside some cans for donating to the North Fulton Community Charities, a non-denominational non-profit that helps families in North Fulton meet their basic needs. What am I donating? Cans of green beans and creamed corn. Our tastes have shifted after eating farm fresh vegetables all summer and canned veggies just taste like mush to us now. So I have about a dozen or so cans bought before, that are neatly boxed up and waiting for a chance to deliver them. Or it may be time to help my students organize another canned food drive.

And to round things out a bit, here's a couple links from online humor site, Cracked.com. First up, is a great discussion of tipping on the Cracked forums. Personally, I always try to tip at least 20 percent when I go out. I have far too many friends and family who work in food service and rely on tips to be comfortable otherwise. And one of today's feature articles is an examination of useless kitchen gadgets, some of which I'm sure were given or received as gifts this year. I've been mercifully gadget free in my kitchen the last few years, but it's only a matter of time before someone decides I just *need* an automatic donut machine. (Though I will say those pizza scissors look pretty sweet...)

Rainy Day Links

I don't know about the rest of you, but rain like we've had this week makes me sluggish and sleepy. I did manage to hit the Alpharetta Farmers Market and host a bridal shower yesterday, but today has been spent either reading or surfing the internet. I didn't even have to cook yesterday, as there were ample leftover finger sandwiches and mini-quiches for all. When I finally rouse myself this evening to cook, it'll be a nice hearty bowl of chicken veggie soup.

Anyways, since I'm trying to keep a regular update schedule around here again, I thought I'd share some of what I've been reading.

Eat Me Daily recently posted some of the ads for the Sydney International Food Festival. These really appeal to the social studies teacher in me, as it's food shaped like flags. Seriously, check them out. And in a related note of coolness, a friend showed me The United Steaks of America, which is a gallery of steaks cut to resemble...you guessed it, the United States.

Gale over at Grocery Cart Challenge posted her incredibly easy looking cheesecake recipe this week. I'm tempted to try it, as I've got all the ingredients sans the graham crackers in my kitchen already. But if I did that, then I'd be missing out on this also incredible looking cheese cake marbled brownies that Smitten Kitchen posted. Both of these sound OMG amazing. Maybe its a good thing I'm knee deep in purple frosted butter cookies right now. Otherwise I'd be happily smeared in chocolate right now and my husband frowning over the mess I've made of the kitchen again.

Here's an interesting article from TIME about the social aspect of obesity. Apparently you eat more with friends or with other overweight people. I believe it. I'm always catching myself thinking "I should order a salad now, so these people won't think I'm fat." Completely ignoring that they can just LOOK at me and see I'm fat. My ordering habits won't change their opinion.

Speaking of ordering the salad, Creative Loafing reposted an article claiming that the presence of salads and other healthy sounding options on menus makes you more likely to order the unhealthy options. Interesting. I haven't noticed that behavior in myself, but it's not outside the realm of possibility.

ZOMG!

I’ve assembled a blogroll of the best local food and dining blogs from regular folks, irregular media and a couple of public relations firms that do more than just promote their clients.

Check out John Kessler's blog roll. The Kes is linking to me. For those of you reading this outside of Atlanta, Kessler was the local fishwrapper's restaurant critic for many years, followed by a weekly column that I read religiously until it ended a few weeks ago. I have enormus respect for him as both a writer and foodie.

I suppose I better update this more than once a week now.

Well, I finally decided...

I'm skipping the Taste of Roswell this weekend. I'll be at the Elijay Apple Festival Saturday and the Cumming Greek Festival on Sunday.

I know everyone was breathlessly awaiting this decision.

In other news, we finally finished off the collard greens for dinner tonight. The recipe I used came from someone I know on a forum. It's very simple and made some of the tastiest greens you can imagine.

A couple slices of bacon
Chopped onion
Greens
Chicken broth

Fry the bacon in a pan with a lid. Throw in your onions. Add greens, then enough chicken broth to cover. Cover with lid, then simmer until greens are tender. The bacon adds great flavor to the greens.

I served it alongside fried potatoes. My husband was iffy about a meal without a big, meaty centerpiece, but even he admitted that it was very filling.

"Sure do like pumpkins, Cotton..."

Caught!

"Here you go, bloggers." Tom Hoover said with a smile as he set a plate of fresh muffins in front of me. To my left, a plate of pastries settled in front of my friends Steve and Rebbecca. We have not ordered yet and in fact, have just sat down at Katie's Cafe and Bakery. On the counter, a copy of my recent review of Katie's sits proudly framed next to the samples of cake. The jig, she is up.

Congratulations to Katie's for being the first to mark me. I feel like a real restaurant reviewer now. I will be by next Sunday to try the Eggs Benedict.

Wait. What?

So when I started food blogging, I also went around and joined a couple food related forums. I figured I need to be involved in the community if I'm going to convince someone to read me.

On one of these forums, we've been having a healthy discussion this week regarding one of my favorite restaurants. I adore this place. I've taken friends and family there when I wanted to impress them. I'm considering taking a VIP guest there at an event I'm running next spring. I consider this place to be a jewel of the Northside food scene. However, several people on this forum have reported the exact opposite experience I have.

No, I'm deliberately not mentioning specifics, because I think everyone is entitled to their opinion. I'm not trying to rile up a crowd to go over there, storm the forums and MAKE everyone love this food. This just baffles me. I've never encountered anyone that disliked this place before and their descriptions are so different that what I have experienced that I actually wondered for half a moment if we were discussing the same restaurant.

So, in liue of a real update, because I'm swamped with work from the job that pays me right now, I put this question to you, dear readers. Have you ever loved a resturant that everyone else hated? Or hated something everyone else loved?

So is 755 Diggs good? I have no idea.

My Cracked article finally ran this weekend.

http://www.cracked.com/article_16587_hollywoods-5-saddest-attempts-at-feminism.html

The comments section is hilarious. My favorite so far? "I thought the writer was absolutely insane reading this article. When it said she was the founder dedicated to the Wheel of Time series, my suspicions where confirmed." I'm not exactly sure what he's saying, but I want to send him a fruit basket.

They did cut it for length, and rewrote some sections for clarity and to punch up the jokes. However, most of what seems to be quoted is all mine baby. Overall, I'm very pleased.


If you like my article, please pass it around. I get bonuses based on traffic.

The Ominvore's Hundred

Bold those you have tried.
Strikethrough those you wouldn't eat on a bet.
Italicize any item you'll never eat again.
Asterisk any items you'd be interested in trying but have not yet.
Under line anything you don't know what it is.



1. Venison
2. Nettle tea*
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare*
5. Crocodile*
6. -Black-pudding-
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp*
9. Borscht*
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo ghobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart*
16. _Époisses _de _Bourgogne_
17. -Black- truffle- (hate mushrooms)
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. -Brawn,- or- head -cheese-
26. -Raw -Scotch -Bonnet- pepper- (I like my tastebuds, thank you)
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. _Bagna _cauda_
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac
37. Clotted cream tea*
38. -Vodka- jelly/Jell-O- (Jello freaks me out. I can't stand it)
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. -Whole- -insects-
43. _Phaal_
44. Goat’s milk*
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more*
46. Fugu*
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. -Sea -urchin-
51. Prickly pear*
52. _Umeboshi_
53. -Abalone- (Dude, these are endangered, aren't they?)
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini*
58. -Beer -above 8%- (Hate drinking beer)
59. Poutine*
60. Carob chips*
61. S’mores
62. -Sweetbreads-
63. Kaolin (It's your toothpaste, suckas)
64. _Currywurst_
65. Durian*
66. -Frogs’ -legs-
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. -Haggis-
69. Fried plantain
70. -Chitterlings,- or -andouillette- (No. Just...no)
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini*
73. Louche absinthe*
74. -Gjetost-, -or -brunost-
75. -Roadkill-
76. _Baijiu_
77. Hostess Fruit Pie (Not since I was about ten years old though)
78. -Snail-
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant*
85. Kobe beef*
86. Hare*
87. Goulash*
88. Flowers*
89. -Horse-
90. Criollo chocolate*
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa*
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano*
96. Bagel and lox*
97. Lobster Thermidor*
98. Polenta
99. -Jamaican -Blue -Mountain -coffee- (Cannot stand coffee)
100. Snake*

You may have noticed my absence recently...

School starts tomorrow, which means I've gone back to work. I've had a full week of pre-planning and Open House, and classes start tomorrow. I always get a little thrown by going back to school. I have to readjust my sleep patterns and eating habits to "normal" and so I tend to disappear from the internet for a week or two when ever this happens.

But I have piles of email to attend to before I can think about updating here this week. So instead, I'll link you to an awesome blog I found this morning via my Google Reader suggestions. It's called "Grocery Cart Challenge". It's written by a mom with four kids and a husband that she feeds on an average of $50 per week. Insane right? But she pulls it off each week somehow. Her blog is chock full of shopping tips, recipes, menu planning ideas, and household advice. Definitely check her out.

New Link Section

I made a new link section today on my blog. It's for local sources of food. I realize that many people are interested in eating locally, but like myself, haven't the first clue where to start. So as I find things, I'll add them to that column, as well as review them here.

Keep in mind, that I am a strictly Northside writer, with a focus on Roswell and Alpharetta (You know, since I live in Roswell). So if you're looking for locally sourced food in your area, your best bet is to check out Local Harvest. It's a searchable database of farmets markets, CSAs and more.

Messin' Around

Those of you that read me by actually checking the site, rather than RSS readers will notice that I've been messing around with the layout a bit this week. Since I read all my blogs via Google Reader now, I never see or care how a blog is laid out. But still, it's there. Someone will look at it. So I might as well make it easy to read or at least not actively annoying.

That's actually a problem I have with quite a few blogs I've stumbled across. They are all so...cluttered. Everyone seems to want to add a blinky to their site these days. I've seen some bloggers that insist you need all that blog bling to be taken seriously as a blogger. Why? I'm writing about food, not webdesign. What purpose does the clutter serve? I've been very careful to only add things to my blog that I think will enhance the utility or interest of the site.

What do you think? Do I need more blog bling? Or do I have the right amount? Or even too much? Gimme some thoughts on this.

Well now!

This little blog of mine seems to be exploding lately. The last time I checked my Google Reader stats, I had four subscribers. And two of them were me and my husband. Now I seem to have EIGHT. Hello regular readers! I've also got tons of links recently from other bloggers, mainly the good people over at the Cracked forums. I've got some mega updates to do in my blogroll.

In personal news, I'll be at the Sci Fi Summer convention this weekend, promoting my fandom project JordanCon. So if you are a foodie who also happens to be a huge nerd, come on by!

I'm hoping to get my article about crockpotting up for you all today before I leave. If not, you'll see it Monday.

In the mean time, I invite you to check out The Eatdown, a brand new blog started up recently by an Austin, TX based culinary student. Jess has tons of great stuff already up, including a great series on mother sauces. Any time Jess talks about food is a treat, and giving her an entire blog to ramble in is just decadent.

Look! Look! Look!

I've posted so many reviews lately, I'm now ranked number TWO at Urbanspoon! That ranking is based on traffic referred from that site. That's very cool!

Hey! Look at that!

I've been super busy after school lately. The kids are starting to vibrate as the end of the year approaches. So I'm extra tired in the evenings and haven't had the energy to blog.

But anyways. I see that I'm the 4th most popular Atlanta blog on UrbanSpoon, a resturant review site I've been linking my reviews to. That's pretty cool.