Spilling the Beans

A few posts back I mentioned that something was cooking and asked you to guess what it was. Well, you all guessed it was a chili cook-off. You're right; this is a Texas-sized chili cook-off challenge.

Since I've just launched my San Antonio blog and San Antonio is the birthplace of chili, and chili is the official state dish of Texas, and my next cookbook is going to be a chili cookbook, I'm having a chili cook-off challenge at my new Foods and Flavors of San Antonio blog. Come on over and see what's cooking!

Foods and Flavors of San Antonio

I'm soooo excited! My publisher just sent me the cover for my
new cookbook, Foods and Flavors of San Antonio, which will be published next March. I LOVE THE COVER!!! :)

The cookbook is priced at $19.95 and can be pre-ordered at Amazon for $13.57. Click the following link. Foods and Flavors of San Antonio
To celebrate, I'm launching my Foods and Flavors of San Antonio blog today. Please come over and visit! There's going to be lots of great Tex-Mex food, plus a tour of all the flavorful fiestas San Antonio has to offer. First up on the menu is the best guacamole you've ever eaten (I'll post the recipe tomorrow) and there's also going to be a chili cook-off.

Sunday Surprise

Something new is cooking and it's a surprise!

I'll give you three hints:

1. It involves a cooking challenge.

2. It involves something Texas is famous for.

3. It may or may not involve beans.

Want to take a guess? I'll be revealing the secret in a week or so.

Feast or Famine?

Camille, at Croque-Camille, tagged me a few days ago with the following scenario: You are stranded on a desert island for an indefinite amount of time. You can bring along five food items and are allowed one sentence to justify your decision. It is an island, so assume plentiful fish, coconuts, and sea salt. Storage is not an issue, as you also have a large solar powered refrigerator. Play along, tag who you want, and link back!

Camille tagged me because I posed a similar question on A Matter of Taste a while back. Her tag offers more than one food choice, but there is no magic food machine. Only problem I have with being stranded on this particular desert island that is abounding with fish, coconuts, and sea salt is that I don't like fish, coconuts, or salt.

Since I'm a writer first (a wordie?) before I'm a foodie, I thought Camille may have made a typo and meant to say "deserted" island instead of "desert" island. So I did a little wiki and found out the words are basically interchangeable. Yea! I love when I learn new things about words.

Back to being stranded on this desert island: I don't want to be
alone on this desert island (which means uninhabited or sparsely populated), and because I really enjoy cooking for people and sharing my food, I'm hoping all the foodies I tag with this are willing to share the food they bring and we can all have a foodie feast. Camille is bringing onions, cream, bacon, potatoes, and mustard seeds. Here's my list:

1. Coffee. Gotta have coffee; that's all there is to it; no further explanation is needed.

2. Hamburger. As long as my magic food machine is there and provides me with a hamburger on a sesame seed bun with lettuce, tomato, and mayo every day for lunch, I'll be happy.

3. Broccoli. I just can't help myself. I totally love broccoli.

4. Tomatoes. I love tomatoes; I can make Spatini spaghetti sauce with them; someone else has to bring the pasta; I know this is a really long and very ungrammatical sentence punctuated with semi-colons, but we're only allowed one sentence to describe why
we'd bring this particular item.

5. Kahlua. I suppose I could learn to love coconut milk, or borrow some of Camille's cream, so I could make my King Alphonse and drink myself into oblivion if no one wants to share their food with me, and besides that, a King Alphonse is really, really good!

I'm tagging the following foodies:

Teresa, at Mexican Chocolate Lore and More and Mexican American Border Cooking, because I'm counting on her to bring chocolate and her magic food machine makes burritos any way she wants them. I'm hoping she'll share.

Meg, at Megan's Munchies. I know, for an almost fact, that she'll bring oatmeal and pumpkin.

Deb, at Kahakai Kitchen, because she already lives on an island, though it's very inhabited, and she knows a lot more about island living than I do.

Megan, at Megans Cookin, because I'm hoping she'll bring her Country Bob's sauce and make meatloaf.

Elle, at Elle's New England Kitchen, because I'm pretty sure she'll make muffins for us almost every day.

Joan, at Foodalogue, because I'm betting she'll bring eggs and make us all breakfast.

Reeni, at Cinnamon, Spice, and Everything Nice, because, more than likely, she'll bring some cinnamon, spice, and everything nice.

You've all been tagged! Let the feast begin! If you weren't tagged, you're still invited to play as long as you bring food to the table. :)

This Blog is Rated "E" for Excellent

My best foodie friend, Teresa, from Mexican American Border Cooking awarded me the This Blog is Rated E for Excellent Award. Thanks, sweetie! It means a lot to me that people like my blog. Teresa's blog is really excellent. She makes great Tex-Mex food and serves it with style and flair.

The rules for this award are a little blurry. But then most excellent recipes are created without exactly following the recipe. That's what makes excellent recipes--tweaking them to suit your taste. Some foodies award it to three deserving bloggers, others award it to ten. You have to link to the person giving you the award and also post it on your sidebar, choose the excellent blogs you enjoy and give them the award. In the tradition of passing along this award to other well-deserving bloggers, I'm awarding this to the following foodies:

Teresa, at Mexican Chocolate Lore and More, because she creates absolutely delicious chocolate food treats. I especially love her Chocolate Marble Pound Cake. It's totally excellent! This is Teresa's newest foodie blog and if you're a chocoholic, you'll love this blog.

Meg, at Megan's Munchies, because she totally loves pumpkin and
can find hundreds of ways to incorporate pumpkin into almost every recipe, even her coffee. Besides that, she's a really nice person and an excellent foodie blogger.

Joan, at Foodalogue, because she makes the best breakfast in the world and because she was the first person to follow my blog. Besides that, she makes really excellent food and doesn't mind doing all the dishes.

Claire, at Culinary Colorado, because she writes excellent posts about local restaurants and the foodie scene, as well as documenting her travels and offering occasional recipes. Besides that, she's an ASJA colleague and comments on some of my other blogs.

Camille, at Croque-Camille, because she's an excellent French cook and she loves Paris. Besides that, she just tagged me with a deserted island scenario, which I'll be tagging you guys with tomorrow.

Megan, at Megan's Cookin, because she makes excellent meatloaf; the best comfort food in the world. Besides that, she adopted a baby blogger and I think that's a way cool thing to do.

Elle, at Elle's New England Kitchen, because she makes the most excellent Chai Blueberry Muffins I've ever tasted. Besides that, she offers a Hard Working Food Blogger Award to every foodie.

Reeni, at Cinnamon, Spice, and Everything Nice, because she makes excellent pizza with a perfect crust. Besides that, she won a copy of my book -- Recipe for a Cookbook -- and is writing a cookbook.

In the spirit of sharing with the foodie community, which is very welcoming and warm, I'm also awarding this to all the excellent foodie blogs that I haven't discovered yet. Anyone who takes the time and love to share their recipes deserves to be rated E for excellent. So, to all you excellent foodie bloggers out there, feel free to claim your award here and leave me a comment so I can go and visit your blog. :)

Meet My Furry Friends

I realize this is a foodie blog and you were probably expecting pictures of food, but I bought a camera today. I promise I'll post pictures of food, but first I have to learn how to use the camera (it's like rocket science or brain surgery, neither one of which I'm good at) and edit the pictures.

I was playing around with the camera and my dogs were really curious and agreed to pose for pictures. The look on Moki's face is priceless. It's like she's asking me what the heck I'm doing and is wondering how she can get this new toy so she can chew it up for dinner. Not happening, little doggy. And Jodi is so cute, with such a happy smile. So here are my two little babies -- Moki and Jodi. Feel free to ooh and aah about how adorable they are while I try to get the hang of my new camera in time to take pictures of the dinner I'm cooking.

Mystery Food Revealed

Meg from Megan's Munchies and Joan from Foodalogue both guessed that the mystery food in my previous post was star fruit. You guys are so smart! Star fruit grows on trees and these little babies are very expensive -- about $3.00 each. The taste is a mixture between an apple and a tangerine, and they look really pretty when cut and served on a plate.

BTW, if you're hungry, Joan is serving breakfast at her blog. And Meg is giving away JamFrakas bars.

Mystery Food ... What is it?

I was in Florida last week and was introduced to a food I'd never seen or heard of before. I love when this happens! Maybe you already know what these are. If not, want to venture a guess? I was going to tell you what they are but thought it would be more fun to turn this into
a challenge. So -- what is this mystery food?

A Great Big Chocolate Kiss

Today is Teresa's birthday so I'm sending her a great big happy birthday chocolate kiss. Teresa is my favorite foodie friend and a confirmed chocoholic as evidenced by her wonderful Mexican Chocolate Lore and More blog. She also creates fantastic Mexican meals at her Mexican American Border Cooking blog. Happy Birthday, sweetie!

Out to Lunch ...

Well, not really out to lunch, but I'll be gone for the next week or so.
I'm flying down to Florida to visit my brother. I won't have access to a computer (I won't know what to do with myself) so I won't be posting.
Just wanted to let you guys know.

It's going to be a family reunion of sorts. My sister is flying in from Maryland and we'll be staying with my cousin. He can't cook to save his soul, so he's really looking forward to my visit. He's already emailed a list of dinners he'd like me to cook for him. We're talking big meals here with plenty of leftovers so he can stock up on some good home cooking. He's planning to take me to the grocery store as soon as my plane lands. So I'll be making a lot of family dinners and when I come home, I'll share the recipes with you.