Food Bloggers Meet at Blogher 2006

Can you tell how excited I was about attending Blogher and getting to meet some of my favorite food bloggers in person? Normally I don't like having my photo on the blog all that much, but this picture by my great friend Elise of Simply Recipes really captured how I felt about the Blogher Conference in San Jose, truly a wonderful experience. So many brilliant women bloggers, and such an opportunity to learn about blogging from people with a lot more experience and expertise. A highlight of the conference for me was meeting so many great food bloggers, some of whom I'd "met" online, and others who were completely new to me. Every food blogger I met was completely friendly and charming, causing me to reflect on how fun it is to connect with people who share your passions. I only hope that a lot more food bloggers can attend next year!

I ended up being the keeper of the list of foodbloggers who attended, so I'm recording it here, along with some links to other people writing about the conference.

Thanks to Elise for sharing this photo of the food bloggers group. There were so many people that some didn't make it in the photo! Hopefully the list is complete, but if I missed anyone, send me an e-mail. In no particular order, other than the order they signed my notebook, here are the food bloggers who attended the "birds of a feather" meet-up on Saturday morning:

• Fatemah from Gastronomie, who blogs about restaurants in San Francisco.
• Shuna from Eggbeater, a real chef, also in the San Francisco area
• Pim from Chez Pim, world traveler and great food writer, also in San Francisco.
• Kat from Kungfoodie, also from San Francisco, who has a blog with impressive videos.
• Nicole from Bakingsheet and also a contributor of fabulous food pieces to Slashfood, from L.A.
• Christine from Nothing-New to Eat? who has some great looking recipes on her site.
  
• Erin from Erin's Kitchen, who blogs about eating local and explores all things food from L.A.
• The charming blogging icon Meg, who writes Megnut from New York City.
• Known to me only as TW, who writes a fun blog called Retro Food from Florida.
• Kimberly from Seattle, who writes a blog called Music and Cats in which she talks about food.
• Melissa who writes a blog called Domesticana, about food and other things domestic.
• Kendall from Vigilante Web who doesn't blog about food but likes to cook.
• Chockylit from Cupcake Bakeshop, who creates yummy looking baked goods.
• Helen Jane from HelenJane, who loves to cook and live in the California wine country.
• Anne Marie who writes a fun blog called This Mama Cooks from Frederick, Colorado.
• My Blogher Friend Suebob, who writes Snackish from Southern California.
• The amazing and generous Elise, who writes Simply Recipes from Sacramento.
• James who writes AboyneJames and lives and cooks in the U.K.
• Lauren who blogs about life in general at The Adnostic, but is interested in cooking.
• Eat Local icon Jen who blogs at Life Begins at 30 and Bay Area Bites in San Francisco.
• Stacie at Schmoopy has a new food blog coming soon!
  
• And, for those who are copying the list, I'm Kalyn from Kalyn's Kitchen in Salt Lake City.

There were a few other people who only gave me their e-mail, so if they want to send me their web address I'll be happy to add it here. If you're interested in reading more about the food blogger meet-up, as well as seeing more individual photos, Elise has a great Blogher write-up at Simply Recipes. On Slashfood, Nicole wrote about the food at Blogher, and a wrap-up of Blogher and tips for starting a food blog. Then on her personal blog, Bakingsheet, Nicole gives her impressions of Blogher. And though she couldn't attend the conference, Bea at La Tartine Gourmand has a blogher connection.

There's a lot of other Blogher coverage on the web, but here are three more interesting things you might want to read if you're curious about the conference:

What Robert Scoble learned from Blogher. (Yes, that is the famous Robert Scoble. I actually got to shake his hand.)

Blogher founder Lisa Stone about the panel discussion that ended the conference with Arianna Huffington, Grace Davis, Caroline Little, and Mena Trott. For me, this was a huge highlight of the conference, and I even got a picture of me with Arianna!

Toby Bloomberg from Diva Marketing blog has a great collection of links from the men at Blogher.

Next summer Blogher is in Chicago,and Blogher Business is in New York City in March. I will definitely be there.

Blogher Conference

Why I Love My Garden! (Mini Garden Update #11)

Before I left for the Blogher Conference on Thursday, I picked everything in the garden and gave it away to the neighbors. Even though I was away and couldn't do an official garden update this week, I thought some of you nice readers who have e-mailed to say you're enjoying the garden updates might like to see what my garden produced in the four days I was gone. Just a quickie photo on my kitchen counter, but what a beautiful bunch of garden goodness. Since I don't have much food in the fridge, I'll be eating some of this today.

The tomato on the left is a brandywine, my favorite type of tomato for taste. The best news is that there are about 30 tomatoes in the garden which are nearly ripe, so I'll be making slow roasted tomatoes soon!

If you haven't seen them, check out Weekend Herb Blogging Recap #43 and my homework assignment for food bloggers. I'll be posting more later today about the wonderful foodbloggers I met at Blogher.

For those who are following the progress, here are my other garden updates.

first garden update
Garden Update #2
Garden Update #3
Garden Update #4
Garden Update #5
Garden Update #6
Garden Update #7
Garden Update #8 (Rand's Garden)
Garden Update #9
Garden Update #10

Weekend Herb Blogging Garden Blogging

Weekend Herb Blogging #43 Recap. How Do You Describe Delicious?

A few hours ago I walked in from the airport, getting home from Blogher where I had a wonderful time meeting some lovely food bloggers, and some very interesting women who blog about other things too. I'll be writing more about Blogher later, but now it's time to recap the herbs, plants, veggies, and flowers that people have been cooking with for Weekend Herb Blogging while I've been off learning how to be a better blogger.

While I was gone, I gave a homework assignment and a lot of you have not done it yet! Actually, it's a little contest asking other bloggers to give me ideas of new ways to say "This tasted really good". The prize (winner selected by random drawing,) is The Cook's Encyclopedia of Herbs, a book any cook or gardener would love! I'll be keeping that going until Tuesday morning, whenever I get up that day, so if you haven't had a chance to leave a comment with your suggestion, enter now and maybe you'll be the winner. Now, let's check out the herb blogging entries. And be sure to read all the way to the end to see who is hosting WHB next weekend.

Astoria, New York, U.S.A.

Stacey of Just Braise has been off traveling, but now that she's home she's remembering a time when she was a sixth grade Francofile. Stacey created some Vichyssoise with Parsley for her re-entry into Weekend Herb Blogging, and it sounds good for summer.

Toronto, Canada
Corn on the cob is not a recommended food on the South Beach Diet, but Ruth of Once Upon a Feast has discovered a way you can have it once in a while, since adding the lime juice to the corn lowers the glycemic rating. I think Ruth's version of Corn on the Cob South Beach Style, with cajun spices and lime juice, really sounds divine. Then later in the week Ruth cooked up a fall dinner in a heat wave with some more foods brimming with herbs, so check out that one too.

Trinidad, California, U.S.A.
Christine of Christine Cooks has come up with a not-too-sweet jelled dessert that sounds like it would be a great summer treat. It's the lemon verbena in Christine's Pear-Ginger Gelee with Lemon Verbena Cream that makes this sound so special.

Kronshagen, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
Right now Ulrike from Kuchenlatein is off on a holiday to Wales, and we hope she's having a great time. Before she left, she picked the last of her red currants to make a delicious looking summer pudding. (I thought red currants looked like the chokecherries I had picked as a child, but Ulrike did some research and convinced me they are not the same.)

St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A.
On a recent trip to the farmer's market, Alanna of A Veggie Venture discovered Amaranth greens, a plant that was new to her and which might be new to WHB, I'm not sure. The farmer recommended cooking them like a green, which Alanna did in her version of Amaranth Greens with Garlic and Ginger.

New Jersey, U.S.A.
Since I live far from the ocean, I've never tried cooking mussels, but I like them a lot and the version created by Gattina looks wonderful. She also used a delicious looking Salsa Verde to garnish her Mussels with Dill and Italian Parsley, for a double dose of herby goodness in this recipe.

Edinburgh, Scotland
The adorable Pille from Nami Nami has been on holiday back in her native Estonia, and one of the interesting things she did was hunting for cloudberries. Don't miss her great photo of this rare fruit. Pille also used cloudberry jam to create Rye Bread Canapes with Blue Cheese and Cloudberry Jam and they look fabulous as well.

Missouri, U.S.A.
Rosemary Lavosh with a Southern Twist is the contribution this week from Glenna at A Fridge Full of Food, who may possibly be more organized than I am, we've been comparing notes! I love the idea of adding rosemary to this, and the southern twist is cornmeal, which gives it a bit more texture interest.

St. Kilda, Victoria, Australia
Neil from Food for Thought shares some interesting information about tea in his post this time, as well as an extremely interesting use of tea. Go and visit Neil to see what contribution the tea makes to his recipe for Prunes in Brandy, and I'm guessing you'll love the sound of these prune preserves over ice cream!

Davis, California, U.S.A.
In Davis, California, where Sher writes What Did You Eat the temperature has been over 100 F for weeks now, so when it went down a little, Sher was inspired to cook something again. Her combination of Herb Rubbed Salmon and Dilled Cucumbers sounds like a great summer meal, and I especially like the combination of things in the rub used on the salmon.

Iowa City, Iowa, U.S.A.
Another interesting garden dilemma for Genie, The Inadvertent Gardener, who discovers a pepper plant suffering from a strange kind of mold. Genie gets advice from commenters about what the mold might be, then uses the remains of the pepper that aren't fuzzy to add to a tasty sounding dish she called hamburger helped.

Melbourne, Australia
A very interesting post about mushrooms came from Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once, with some very beautiful photographs of different mushroom varieties. Haalo uses several kinds of mushrooms in her Mixed Mushroom Bruschetta with Goat's Cheese, and it sounds like it would taste amazing.

North Carolina, U.S.A.
JMom from In Our Kitchen has been shopping at my beloved Costco, and she picked up some chicken thighs to make Scarborough Faire Chicken this week. Oh yes, I am old enough to remember the Simon and Garfunkel song about parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme that inspired the name of this dish!

Pistoia, Tuscany, Italy
It is still hot in Italy at the home of my good friend Ilva from Lucullian Delights, but luckily some of her neighbors have been inviting her for dinner so she does not have to cook too often. However, she did manage to whip up a great sounding salad, Insalata di Avodaco, Lenticchie e Granchio con Semi di Senape or Salad with Avocado, Lentils, and Crab Meat and Mustard Seeds. As always, beautiful photos of this dish.

Southern California, U.S.A.
Surfindaave of The Serendipitous Chef is always very thoughtful about the way he uses ingredients, and he thought long and hard about the tense harmony of combining dill and garlic with corn. When Dave took the plunge and created Pasta with Corn, Dill, and Scapes, the end result looked like a complete success to me.

Connecticut, U.S.A.
New veggies that she's discovered since she started blogging is something Sarah of Cucina Bella has been thinking about recently. This week she decided to experiment a little with Kale, and combined kale, sausage, cream, garlic, and a few other flavors in a superb-sounding Zuppa Toscana. (Already saved to my del.icio.us cookbook, Sarah!)

Sydney, Australia
The lovely Anna from Morsels and Musings purchased some ultra fresh rainbow trout from her fishmonger, and wanted a simple way to prepared it. She lightly fried the trout in butter and served it with a delicious salsa verde with mint, chives, parsley, and capers to make Pan-Fried Rainbow Trout with Salsa Verde. (Guess what Anna, the rainbow trout is the state fish of Utah, where I live!)

New York City, New York, U.S.A.
At the farmer's market, the Chocolate Lady from In Mol Araan discovers a new herb which she was told is called Cuban Oregano. If you haven't heard of this before, check out the photo and information about it. TCL uses it in a delicious sounding combination of Black Lentil Salad with Cuban Oregano.

Salt Lake City, Utah. U.S.A.
My own herb of choice this week was cilantro, and I did a bit of research about whether cilantro, coriander leaf, and chinese parsley are all the same herb. (They are, and the seeds of the plant is always called coriander or coriander seed.) I used some cilantro to make Garbanzo, Tomato, and Cilantro Salad with Lime and Chile dressing, which is one of my favorites out of all the new recipes I've created this summer.

That's all the herb blogging for this week. Next week the host for Weekend Herb Blogging will be Christa from Calendula and Concrete, in Washington D.C. She'll be posting the recap on Monday, August 6. If you want to participate, send your link (to calendula1 AT gmail DOT com) by 3:00 on Sunday, Eastern Standard Time. Be sure to check the rules for Weekend Herb Blogging if you're not sure what they are, and include a link to Calendula and Concrete in your post.

Food Recipes Cooking South Beach Diet Recipes
Low Carb Recipes Low Glycemic Index Recipes
Weekend Herb Blogging

South Beach Recipes of the Week #5 I'm Having Fun At Blogher!

I'm having such fun at the Blogher Conference, but you didn't think I'd miss sharing some South Beach recipes, did you? Every Saturday I spotlight South Beach Friendly recipes I find on other food blogs, since a lot of people don't know much about the glycemic index, which is what the South Beach Diet is based on. It's been interesting how every week I start out on Monday and Tuesday worrying that I won't see that many South Beach recipes, and by the end of the week I have a whole group to choose from! Now, I realize that only some of my blog readers are South Beach fans, and rest assured, my goal is not to convert anyone to the South Beach diet. I'm pro-choice when it comes to eating! However, I'd be willing to bet plenty of non-South Beach eaters will think these recipes look good too.

Photo by Michelle of Je Mange la Ville

The first recipe I spotted this week that made me go "wow" was on a blog I recently discovered called Je Mange la Ville, where Michelle used chicken, blueberries, feta, and penne pasta to create a Blueberry Pasta Salad that sounds intriguing. This recipe calls for whole wheat pasta, or you can use Dreamfield's Pasta, which even comes in penne, and either of those choices make this great for phase two or three of South Beach.

Photo by Rorie of Milk and Honey

I spotted this great sounding recipe for Pappa al Pomodora on the blog of my great friend Rorie at Milk and Honey, and when I saw that she used whole wheat bread, I thought, perfect for South Beach! I would be careful to get bread made from 100% whole wheat flour, and I might use a bit less bread, but with those tiny adaptations, this would be great for phase two or three, especially for those in the southern hemisphere where it's getting cold.

Photo by Surfindaave of The Serendipitous Chef

I always see great looking food when I visit Surfindaave, The Serendipitous Chef, and this week I zeroed right in on this Cucumber and Radish Salad. You know how I've been having a thing for radishes this summer, and the cucumbers are just coming on in the garden. In the salad the cukes and radishes are slightly brined, then combined with parsley for a combination that looks like it would taste wonderfully fresh.

Photo by Helen of Beyond Salmon

This last recipe for Not Your Average Cole Slaw comes from talented cook Helen of Beyond Salmon. Cabbage is such a healthy food for any diet, and the tiny amount of sugar in this wouldn't stop me from eating it. You could substitute Splenda for phase one, or if you just wanted to avoid sugar. I thought the combination of mustardy, limey, herby flavors in this salad sounded divine.

This morning at Blogher there's an event called "birds of a feather" where like minded people get together, so I'll report back on which other food bloggers were there. If you're interested in what's going on at Blogher, here's a post about some women who will be doing live blogging from Blogher. Has the conference lost it's heart now that there are so many more participants? Not according to my friend Toby Bloomberg at Diva Marketing Blog. By the way, have you done your homework assignment? While I'm off learning to be a better blogger, I'm asking readers to help me think of more interesting ways to say "This tasted really good." On Monday I'll be doing a random drawing of the people who have left comments and the winner will get a copy of The Cook's Encyclopedia of Herbs, a wonderful book I discovered recently. If you're at all interested in herbs, you'll love this book, so leave a comment and help me get better at describing my cooking efforts.

I'll be coming home on Sunday, hopefully in time to post the recap for Weekend Herb Blogging, but if there are lots of entries it might not get posted until Monday. Whichever, you have until 3:00 Sunday (Utah time) to send your entry to kalynskitchen@comcast.net if you want to participate. Check out the rules for Weekend Herb Blogging for more information if you need it.

Recipes Cooking South Beach Diet Recipes
Low Carb Recipes Low Glycemic Index Recipes
Weekend Herb Blogging Blogher Conference

Kalyn Is At Blogher Today But Here's Your Homework!

I'm writing this early in the morning from my hotel room in San Jose, California, where I'm attending the Blogher Conference, a gathering of over 400 women bloggers from all over the world. What started out feeling like the mother of all blind dates has turned into one of the most exciting things I've ever participated in. I can tell I'm going to learn more than I ever imagined at Blogher.

Last night I attended a reception for Blogher contributing editors and conference speakers, and you could feel the energy in the room. All those smart women in one place, not to mention some pretty smart men too. I saw a few blogging superstars, but the person I was most excited to meet at Blogher was Elise, whose cooking blog, Simply Recipes, was one of the very first food blogs I discovered when I accidently became a food blogger. Not only do I love Simply Recipes, but Elise has been so encouraging and helpful to me, and in person she's just as warm, friendly and brilliant as she seems on Simply Recipes. I'm looking forward to getting to know her a lot better. I also met two of the three founders of Blogher, Lisa Stone and Jory de Jardins, who both are the type of young, gorgeous, and intelligent women you might love to hate if only they weren't so darn nice. (I'm also excited about meeting Elisa Camahort, the other Blogher founder today.)

If you're only attending Blogher virtually I've discovered you can still learn a lot due to the number of people doing live blogging while the conference sessions are happening. I'm not going to attempt live blogging, but I'm giving you links to those who are. There are quite a few sessions of interest to food bloggers, so here's the Blogher Day One Schedule and Blogher Day Two Schedule if you want to see what's on the schedule. Then check this list of who's live blogging which session. (Don't miss reading about the session on digital photography on day one if you're a food blogger!) Of course, I'll be reporting later on my own impressions of the conference, including the foodblogger meet-up on Saturday.

Now for that homework assignment. I'm a teacher for those of you who don't know about my dual personality, and teachers sometimes do assign homework. Today we're talking about synonyms, two words that mean the same thing. You may use your thesaurus for this assignment if you wish. And, there's a prize! Enter as often as you want, but every entry has to be a separate comment, because I'm going to print the comments and number them to get the numbers for the drawing.

I'm really giving you the homework so you can help me become a better blogger, which is why I'm going to Blogher in the first place. I want you to help me with something I sometimes struggle with on this blog, which is, how to think of a creative way to say, "This tasted really good." When I edit my blog posts before publishing, I find that I use the words delicious, wonderful, amazing, fantastic, and yummy a lot to describe how something tastes. I need some new words!!

Leave a comment completing this sentence with just a few words:

This tasted ___________________________.

After I get home from Blogher, I'll do a random drawing among the commenters who came up with a new way to describe delicious tasting food, and send the winner a copy of The Cook's Encyclopedia of Herbs, a wonderful little book I recently discovered. If you're a cook, a gardener, or both, you'll love this book. If you're a Weekend Herb Blogger, trust me, you want this book.

If that isn't enough to keep you busy while I'm away, check out more blogher conference reports at the Blogher site, the posts at Blogher Food and Drink or poke around a little bit in Kalyn's Kitchen Recipes to see if there's some great recipes you've missed. (You might also see how much I've learned since I've been blogging if you go back a ways into the archives.)

By the way, even though I'm away, Weekend Herb Blogging is still happening at Kalyn's Kitchen this weekend. Send your link to kalynskitchen AT comcast DOT net if you'd like to participate. I need it by 3:00 Sunday afternoon (Utah time). I'll be posting the recap on Sunday or Monday morning, depending on how many entries there are.

Food Recipes Cooking South Beach Diet Recipes
Low Carb Recipes Low Glycemic Index Recipes
Weekend Herb Blogging Blogher Conference

How to Grill Zucchini - Perfect Every Time! Blogher Conference, Here I Come!

For most of my life I was kind of lukewarm about zucchini. When I was a kid, my mom would dip it in egg and fry it, something I could eat but nothing to write home about, at least to me. It wasn't until I discovered how great grilled zucchini can taste (and my mom started making "creamed" zucchini - photo coming soon!) that I really started appreciating the zucchini that sprouted up overnight in the garden.

This is a recipe that you should make in the summer when the zucchini are fresh from the garden or farmer's market. Since you want rather thick slices of zucchini, it's the perfect way to cook those that miss getting picked and get a bit too large. Zucchini can be easily grilled on a stove-top grill pan with ridges if you don't have an outside grill. The same type of preparation is also good on yellow summer squash or eggplant. Once you've tried it, I promise this way of cooking zucchini will become a part of your regular summer rotation for the grill.

I don't remember where I originally heard the idea of using purchased Italian dressing as a marinade for grilled zucchini, but I've been perfecting this way of cooking it for a few years now. One 12-14 inch zucchini makes enough to serve two people as a side dish.

Grilled Zucchini - Perfect Every Time!
(2 servings)

zucchini 12-14 inches long, sliced in slices 1/2 to 5/8 inch thick.
1/2 cup your favorite Italian salad dressing
(for South Beach choose dressing with less than 2 carbs per serving, I like Newman's Own Olive Oil and Vinegar dressing)
1 tsp. garlic powder or garlic puree (optional)
1 -2 tsp. dried oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary, or a combination (optional)

Cut zucchini into slices, making sure the slices are the same thickness. Combine salad dressing with garlic powder and dried herbs of your choice, if using. (I like this both with and without the extra flavorings. This is one place where fresh herbs are not better.) Put zucchini slices into ziploc bag, pour in marinade and let zucchini marinate 4 hours or longer, even as long as all day if desired.

To cook zucchini, preheat grill to medium-high. (You can only hold your hand there for 3-4 seconds.) You can spray the grill with non-stick spray if desired, but you don't really need it.

Place zucchini on grill, having a spray bottle handy for taming any flames that shoot up from the oil in the marinade. After about 4 minute, check for grill marks, and rotate zucchini a quarter turn. Cook 3-4 more minutes on first side.

Turn zucchini to second side and cook about 4 minutes more, or until zucchini is starting to soften quite a bit, with the outside slightly charred and browned. Season with salt and fresh ground black pepper and serve hot.

In a few hours I'll be leaving to attend the Blogher Conference in San Jose, California, where I'll be joining over 400 other women bloggers for two days packed with learning about blogging. I'm excited to have a chance to attend, and thrilled to be actually meeting some other food bloggers. I've prepared some things to post while I'm gone, and tomorrow there will be a food writing homework assignment (with a great prize!) so be sure to check back for that. I'll try to check in from Blogher if I can, but if not, I'll give a report when I get back.

I've been spotlighting some of the Food and Drink posts that have been written for Blogher by food and drink editors Alanna of A Veggie Venture, Sam of Becks and Posh, Elise of Simply Recipes, and myself. Today since I'm running out the door to catch a plane, I'm going to give you the link for Blogher Food and Drink and let you finish exploring. Since Blogher is a big site, with about 60 writers. I love this feature that lets you separate posts by category, so if you want to keep up on the food writing on the site, you just click on Food and Drink in the left sidebar. Have fun exploring Blogher, and be sure to check back tomorrow for the homework assignment.

I'm hosting Weekend Herb Blogging this weekend, but since I don't get home until Sunday, I may not post the Recap until Monday if there are a lot of entries. If you want to participate this time, send your link to kalynskitchen AT comcast DOT net by 3:00 Sunday afternoon, Utah time. You can check out the Weekend Herb Blogging Rules for more information.

Food Recipes Cooking South Beach Diet Recipes
Low Carb Recipes Low Glycemic Index Recipes
Weekend Herb Blogging Blogher Conference

Garbanzo, Tomato, and Cilantro Salad with Lime and Chile Dressing. Two Days Until Blogher Conference!

Since I'll be spending the Weekend at the Blogher conference, I'm doing my herb blogging a bit early this week. Luckily, the rules for Weekend Herb Blogging don't require the blogging be done on the weekend! I'm hosting this week, but since I won't be getting home from Blogher until Sunday, I might post the recap on Monday if there are a lot of entries. I need your entry by 3:00 on Sunday, Utah time (kalynskitchen AT comcast DOT net) if you're participating this week, so get cooking! And can you believe this is Weekend Herb Blogging #43!

This week I'm writing about cilantro, which I declared to be my very favorite herb for my post for Weekend Herb Blogging #9. If you're in the Southern hemisphere where it's cold you may want to click over to that post to get the recipe for Chicken, Black Bean and Cilantro Soup. The first time I talked about cilantro I thoroughly discussed it's soapy reputation among some folks, and how when I was catering houseboat trips I learned never to serve it without asking first if everyone liked the taste. This time around, I'm going to focus on the name, which like so many things, depends on whom you ask. In various parts of the world this herb is called coriander, coriander leaf, cilantro, and Chinese Parsley, and when I googled "Is cilantro the same as coriander?" just to be sure my information was correct, I found many different sources that verified that they are the same plant. Some sites did reference the fact that the seeds of the plant are always called coriander seed, while the leaves have various names. Just to make this even more confusing, there is an a wonderful tasting herb called Vietnamese Cilantro, which I first tasted at Yank Sing in San Francisco, and which tastes nothing like regular cilantro.

Anyway, whatever it's called, this time I used my cilantro (my preferred name) to make this fantastic salad with chickpeas (also called garbanzo beans!) I found a recipe which gave me the idea of combining chickpeas and cilantro on a blog called Imagnifique, but when I tried typing in the url again from my printed copy, the blog doesn't seem to exist any more. Not surprisingly, since I'm The Woman Who Never Followed a Recipe In Her Life, my salad ended up being quite different than the original, and I was raving about this to everyone I talked to the day I made it.

Garbanzo, Tomato, and Cilantro Salad
with Lime and Chile Dressing
(4 servings, recipe created by Kalyn with inspiration
from a blog that no longer exists)
1 can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), rinsed well
4-5 tomatoes, diced in 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 cup green onion, sliced
1 cup (1 large bunch) cilantro, washed, dried, and chopped coarsely with chef's knife or food processor

Dressing:
2 T fresh lime juice
2 T extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 tsp. ground Chipotle chile powder (I used Penzeys, you could substitute hot sauce if you don't have ground Chipotle)
1/2 tsp. chile powder (mild)
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. onion powder
zest from one lime
salt, fresh ground pepper to taste

Drain beans into colander and rinse until no foaming remains. Let drain well. Mix dressing ingredients, then put beans and dressing into a plastic container with a snap-on lid and shake a few times. Let beans marinate in dressing one hour or longer.

Dice tomatoes, place in colander with a small amount of salt and let tomatoes drain 10 minutes while you dice onions and chop cilantro. Combine marinated beans with dressing, tomatoes, green onion, and cilantro and stir gently until well combined. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately.

(Added March 2007: Here's another version of the salad with Avocado, which sounds to me like a perfect addition. Thanks to Mooncrazy from Peanut Butter Etouffee for this variation.)

Only two more days until the start of the Blogher Conference, and I couldn't be more excited. For me, Blogher is kind of like a giant blind date, since I'll be meeting so many people I've only known online. I'm not the only woman attending who has a little bit of pre-Blogher jitters. Blogher contributing editor Jenn Satterwhite wrote about pre-blogher freaking out in a post that has generated 35 comments so far!

For my readers who are foodies, but not really familiar with Blogher, I've been giving a little taste of Blogher Food and Drink for these days leading up to the conference. in the Food and Drink section, the Blogher contributing editors are myself, Alanna of A Veggie Venture, Sam of Becks and Posh, and Elise of Simply Recipes. You can access just Blogher food and drinking by clicking on Food and Drink in the left sidebar at Blogher.

In April and May, Sam was writing about burger bling, while Alanna talked about Farmer's Markets. I spotlighted a blog that truly did produce food porn. Alanna tells us about Spring on a Plate, and someone who was banned from Whole Foods. Elise gives a great spotlight to Helen and her school of fish. Sam tells us why chefs can't be naked, and I write about foodies who blog in more than one language.

Later in May comes the Blogher Post That Changed My Life. Well, actually I first read about How to Make a Del.icio.us Cookbook on Elise's blog, but when she posted about it at Blogher, I made the commitment to do it. I love, love, love my del.icio.us cookbook. If you don't know what this is, be sure to read this post.

Food Recipes Cooking South Beach Diet Recipes
Low Carb Recipes Low Glycemic Index Recipes
Weekend Herb Blogging Blogher Conference

Soy-Grilled Shrimp and Asian Veggies. Three Days to Blogher Conference!

A few days ago I was thinking of something to cook that had carrots in it, partly because I had a new mandoline that was a gift from a student, and I bought some whole carrots to try it out. I looked a few places for ideas, when I saw a good sounding recipe for carrots with an Asian twist on A Veggie Venture. Of course, if you read my blog much you won't be surprised that I used Alanna's recipe as an inspiration, but changed the recipe a bit. I ended up with a dish of grilled veggies and shrimp with an Asian style marinade that was a keeper for me. And since this has lots of healthy veggies, it's perfect for ARF/5-A-Day, the event every Tuesday where Cate of Sweetnicks tries to get us to eat our veggies.

There are a number of veggies that could be used in this besides the ones I tried. I was planning to add mushrooms, and possibly a yellow pepper from the garden, but I was afraid it would be too much for the pan. Other things that might be good include asparagus, green beans, zucchini, yellow summer squash, or broccoli.

If you have a grill and don't have one of these wonderful pans with holes that sit on top of the grill, I suggest you invest in one. I discovered them last summer, and now I have three! I use the one in the photo below the most, and it's the perfect size when you're cooking for only one or two people. For more people than that, this larger grill pan from Amazon.com looks like it would be great.

Soy-Grilled Shrimp with Asian Veggies
(2 servings, recipe by Kalyn with inspiration from A Veggie Venture)

2-3 medium sized carrots, cut in half lengthwise, then cut in diagonal slices
2 cups snow peas, washed
1 sweet onion, cut in same size pieces as snow peas

Marinade:
1/4 cup peanut oil
1 T soy sauce (I use Kikkoman)
1 T fresh lime juice
1 tsp. garlic puree (sometimes called ground garlic in Asian stores)
1 tsp. ginger puree (sometimes called ground ginger in Asian stores)
(a bit of red pepper flakes would be good in this)

4-6 shrimp per person, depending on size (I used frozen shrimp, peeled, deveined, and tail removed)
salt, pepper to taste

Mix marinade ingredients. Cut car