It’s been far too long that I’ve gone without publicly thanking the dear sweet Mari over at Once Upon A Plate. You see, right before Thanksgiving she gave my blog the Inspiration Award.  Things were so crazy busy getting ready for Thanksgiving that I didn’t take the time to acknowledge her flattering gesture.  

The next thing you know, Thanksgiving is over and the very next week was our wedding anniversary!  Then we were smack dab in the middle of preparing for Christmas!  I kept thinking about Mari and her blog award. Everytime I visited her blog (which you simply MUST do) as much as I enjoyed it I felt a pang of guilt knowing I had not publicly thanked her.  While that didn’t stop me from snagging a recipe or two… or ten… I knew I had done her wrong and she didn’t deserve it.

Mari is one of the most enthusiastic supporters of my blogging efforts. She’s an inspiration to me… a very big inspiration.  From the first time I visited her blog (which you simply MUST do) I was blown away by her creativity, her recipes and most of all her photos.  I admit that I wanna be like her when I grow up (only problem is that I already AM grown up and I’m nothing like her… but I can still try hehe). Most blogs that have music… well… they bother me.  Not so much the blogs bother me but the music bothers me.  Kinda like trying to shop at Abercrombie & Fitch.  Truth be told I dunno how folks *can* shop there with that incessant, loud, thump-thump-thump craziness going on that some call “music”.   Mari’s was the first blog I came across that had music I found to be soothing… enjoyable… pleasant… and of course I had to copy it :)  See, I’m trying to be like her :)

So now it’s the end of the year and I simply don’t want this guilty feeling to be on my conscience come 2009. Nope!  No way!  No how!  Nuh-uhn!!!   I want to continue visiting Mari’s blog (which you simply MUST do) with a clean heart next year :)

Thank you Mari… for everything you are to me.  I know it’s taken me far, far too long to acknowledge the award you so graciously passed along to me.  I’m truly humbled by it.  I know we’ve never met in person nor ever had a phone conversation but I count you among my blogging buddies! The internet is an amazing place… it can take you places you’ve never been… teach you things you’ve never known… expose you to concepts/ideas you never knew existed and make you feel close to people you’ve never met.  Mari and her blog are all that to me… and more.

Have a delicious day – and click here to visit Mari’s fabulous blog!

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Come on… who doesn’t like to hear nice things… especially about themselves ;-) I think it’s just human, yanno? As a blogger you start out not entirely sure if what you have to say is enough to sustain consistent posting. As a food blogger you have to tackle that and present interesting recipes and attempt to take decent pictures of your food! LOL! This award is the Arte Y Pico award and it’s for visual images (that’s what I call the “art” contained in my little blog). I received it from Angela at Stressed Out Mum Seeks Inspiration (love that title! LOL) and I’m very flattered by it.

Photography… especially food photography… is something very new for me. I’ve never taken a class… I know next to nothing… and honestly think I just get very lucky on any of my shots that come out “good”. But I love photographing food and it was one of the main drivers in my decision to enter the blogosphere 6 months ago.

I want my blog to present approachable recipes… things pretty much anyone could make with a reasonable amount of success. I’m not a professional… I have no training… I didn’t grow up in the kitchen. I bought a KitchenAid stand mixer last December and it literally transformed my life. Sure, I cook quite often but I bake all the time. That’s my true passion – baked goods! What can I say? LOL! There’s a pastry-chef inside of me that’s continually screaming to escape the confines of my software development real-life ;-)

Food photography excites me in a way that few other things actually do. And I like to put up a lot of pictures of a recipe… not just one shot from one angle. The recent Daring Bakers recipe for July that was posted here was quite a challenge and I ended up taking over 200 shots of all the different steps along the way. Initially it came off as a very complicated recipe that, when deconstructed, was not really that difficult. I wanted to compose a post that showed the process of how it’s done… so those of you who actually come here and read my little blog… would feel like “hey, I could actually DO that”. Okay granted maybe you wouldn’t wanna do it, but you’d feel like you could do it :)

I’m not one who’ll buy you dinner every night… I’d rather teach you to fish so that you can make your own dinner whenever you’re hungry. At work, I’m big on knowledge transfer… I’m not one to selfishly wrap my arms around what I know and scream “Mine! Mine! Mine”… I’m glad to teach someone else how to do anything and everything I know. It makes me happy to see someone that I’ve helped along the way actually go out and achieve on their own. Makes me very happy indeed. So when people read my blog and try some of the recipes or techniques… and email or comment to let me know… it just rocks my world. There’s nothing at all impressive about me or what I do… if I can do something, really, anyone can do it.

I hope all the pictures I put up here on this little blog are helpful to you in some way. Notice I didn’t say “each” of the pictures since I totally realize that not every single one of them is a “great shot” hahahahaha. I could put up more pictures… I could put up less pictures… I could put up no pictures at all. But a food blog needs pictures if you ask me… and I’m really very flattered that Angela thought my food pictures were worthy of the Arte y Pico award – Thanks Angela :)

Have a delicious day!!!

This is the very first award my little blog has won… and honestly I couldn’t be more proud.

A few days ago I posted an entry dedicated to Dorie Greenspan’s Perfect Party Cake and received a comment from Teanna over at Spork or Foon which said

And do yanno how long it took me to head over to Spork or Foon and pick it up? Yes! Exactly 3.2 – - – nanoseconds! Hahahahaha! That’s how excited I was… and still am :) In fact, I posted the following, highly-dorky comment to her blog in response

Really, I’m tickled… and pleased…. and most of all I’m appreciative. I’m appreciative that people actually come here, visit my blog, take the time to look at the pictures and read what I have to say. It’s always nice to be appreciated… and I appreciate all of you.

Have a delicious day :)