I have some pretty stiff competition though. Frankly, I’m happy to even be listed in link form next to these sites. The other sites/bloggers nominated for the award were Kath Eats, Smitten Kitchen, Taste with the Eyes, and Viet World Kitchen.

So if you can spare a moment, go check out all other nominations and vote! Voting for me is, of course, encouraged.

And now for some links!

Gourmet to All That – A great op-ed from the creator of Cook’s Illustrated about the closing of Gourmet mag and what it means for the publication industry. I must say that I was a bit worried when I read this that I’m “part of the problem” because I’m not a trained chef, but I decided that I’m not part of the problem because my site isn’t the first thing that comes up when you google broccoli casserole. And if it was the first thing that came up, my recipe would rock. And I subscribed to Cook’s Illustrated today. So there. (@ NY Times)

Rosemary Lemon Cookies – Ok. So I was going through mild withdrawals. Not a big deal. I would just occasionally scream at my cat about how Pete has fallen off the blogosphere. He’s back though. With a very good explanation and a solid cookie recipe. So my RSS Feed is right again. (@ Pete Bakes)

Brown Butter Pound Cake – There are some recipes that seem almost evil. They look too good to be actually Good. With a capital G. I feel like I could be lured to do very bad things if this cake was dangled in front of me. That’s all I’m saying about that. (@ Sassy Radish)

Sticky Salty Sweet Granola – I made granola last week, but I must say that this stuff looks very good. And the second photo in this post is a fantastic food photo. I stared at it for longer than I’d like to admit. But really all the photos are inspiring and the recipe looks great. (@ Local Lemons)

Have a good (hopefully long) weekend everyone!

I used to be more active on there than I am these days, mainly because I just don’t have enough hours in the day.

They just announced the 2009 Foodbuzz awards for food blogs! I dig their categories. Check these out:

Best Overall Blog
Best New Blog
Best Wine Blog
Best Cocktail/Spirits Blog
Best Baking Blog
Best Food Photography Blog
Best Visual Blog (graphic design)
Best Writing Voice
Best Healthy Living Blog
Best Green/Sustainable blog
Best Family Blog
Best Recipe Blog
Best Blogger Humanitarian Effort
Best Community Blog Effort (recognizing blogging groups/challenges/etc)
Most Humorous Food Blog

Blogger you’d most want to:
-Take to dinner
-Cook a meal for you
-Be your personal Sommelier
-Create you a cocktail
-Watch on Food Network
-Watch on Iron Chef
-See open up their own restaurant
-See their blog made into a movie

Those are some serious awards! Now you don’t have to be a foodbuzz member or anything to nominate someone for any one of these awards, but if there’s a blog (HINT!) that you read regularly that you think might fit under one or two of these, you could nominate said blog HERE.

A few links to chew on…

McDonald’s Visualization Map – This has been floating around the Internet the last few days, but it is very amazing to me. The idea that you can go basically anywhere in the U.S. and be almost assured to be within an hour of a McDonald’s is crazy. The farthest you could get from a McDonald’s if you tried? 107 miles. (via Serious Eats and Weather Sealed)

BLT From Scratch - No joke. Chef Ruhlman had a competition over the last few months for people to create their own BLTs… from scratch. That means grow your own tomato, smoke/cure your own bacon, bake your own bread and make your own mayo. Pretty awesome stuff. This is his own version and it looks very amazing. (@ Ruhlman)

Smitten with a Baby – A baby happened over at one of my favorite food blogs. It’s a really cute baby also. (@ smitten kitchen)

I didn’t post a recipe poll this week because I’m kind of still licking my wounds from this disaster. If you want me to make something though… leave a comment and maybe I’ll give it a shot!

Photo by Terren in VA.