I’ve run across another Nashville blogger, Fear Ye No Carb. She’s been at it since September… and somehow has been flying below my radar. The blog is a collection of recipes - good ones…

Mango-Jicama and Cucumber Salad
Fish Tacos with Guac
Sweet-Hot Bbq Tater Fries
Spicy Turkey Burgers
Tomatillo-Sauced Enchiladas with Spinach and Mushrooms
Vegetarian Enchiladas
Strawberry Almond Pie
Salmon with Puffed Pastry and Pesto

Hungry yet?

god bless america… 

and yes, i’ve already ordered these

I thought it’d be helpful to give you a listing of all the varied and sundry local food blogs.  Like just in case I mysteriously disappear, as in abducted by aliens.  Then the list would not be gone forever…. 

On a lighter note, a few new food blogs have come to my attention, which makes me very happy.  So without further ado, here’s what I’ve compiled to date: (and in no particular order)

Bites - The Nashville Scene’s Food Blog -the best and most fun local resource
Lesley Eats - a vegetarian with serious sass
Tupperware Avalanche - a real food writing pro from way back
Feeding Groom - excellent dinners - talented and straight forward
Joy of Cooking - wonderful baker with a passion for all things culinary
A Man’s Gotta Eat - this guy is too much - love him
tempest est nunc - she’ll surprise you…
Nashveggie - vegetarian/vegan
Eat to the Beat - murfreesboro based
On The Kitchen Steps - passionate about food with a charcuterie focus
Lannae’s Food and Travel - a lot of local reviews and travel
Breadion - random cooking exploits
Love and Olive Oil - very beautiful food and photos
Kitchen Confit - focusing on the ’southern’ thang
Maple Sugar - the sweetest blog…
Fixin’ Supper - a hybrid of food articles, some cooking and general thoughts
cook eat FRET - she’s a total hack…

Anyone I’ve missed?

Perhaps I am overly excited about this but I (literally) stumbled upon a new favorite food blog and much to my surprise it’s local!

Welcome to Love and Olive Oil, the culinary adventures of Lindsay and Taylor. We’re not chefs, in fact we’ve had our fair share of flames and failures. But like any good relationship, cooking has its ups and downs. We’re all about quick and flavorful dishes that don’t hurt the wallet. We invite you to our kitchen (as tiny as it may be) and share in our love for food and our desire to always find something new to eat…

Let’s welcome them to MCB with some blog love.  Ok?  Go over there and say hello.  It’s a total class act - great food and gorgeous photos. 

Oh, and you’ve got to check out how Taylor proposed…

Don’t miss the culinary event of the year!

On Wednesday, April 30th, Whole Foods Market Presents Nashville Scene’s Iron Fork, benefiting St. Luke’s Community House,
at LP Field’s West Club Level Riverside.

The fun lasts from 6:00-10:00 p.m. with samples of award-winning cuisine from Menu of Menus 2008, the Scene’s guide to Nashville dining, two complimentary drink tickets + cash bar, tons of giveaways, and DJ Mindub spinning live. Watch 5 of the best chefs in Nashville battle it out in a head-to-head chef’s competition better than anything you’ll ever see on TV! Hosted by Nashville Scene’s very own Carrington Fox and Jim Ridley. Or enjoy a refreshing glass of delicious Blue Moon ale in the Blue Moon Beer Garden hosted by 107.5’s Woody and Jim.

And it’s all for a great cause! Bring your non-perishable food items to the event and help stock St. Luke’s pantry! Just by attending Iron Fork, you and all of your family and friends will raise money for St. Luke’s Community House. Bring your family and friends and help raise money for St. Luke’s Community House, since food is the very foundation of St. Luke’s services.
Volunteers deliver around 100 hot meals to area seniors every week day through their mobile meals program.
St. Luke’s distributes emergency food boxes to hundreds of our neighbors each year. St. Luke’s began offering culinary classes as part of their job skills training program that serves men and women trying to find a better job.

All 5 competing chefs will be creating their culinary masterpieces with cookware provided by Le Creuset and ingredients from Whole Foods Market. The winning chef will receive the prestigious Golden Fork award and will keep their set of LeCreuset cookware, while the four remaining sets will be donated to St. Luke’s for use in their culinary program.

The 2008 Iron Fork competing chefs are:
Bobby Benjamin – Flyte World Dining & Wine
Clay Greenberg – Lime/Virago
Deb Paquette – Zola Restaurant
Will Uhlhorn – F. Scott’s
Sean Norton – Watermark

Sampling restaurants include Agave Tequila Lounge, Alleycat Lounge & Tex-Mex Grill, Drew’s Brews Coffee, F. Scott’s Restaurant & Jazz Bar, Flyte World Dining & Wine, Green Hills Grille, Hotel Indigo, Mad Platter, McFadden’s, Mere Bulles Restaurant, Nero’s Grill, PM, Qdoba Mexican Grill, Rumours, Rumours East, Ru San’s Sushi and Seafood Japanese Restaurant, Saffire Restaurant & Bar, Star Bagel Café, Watermark, Whole Foods Market, Wildhorse Saloon, Wildwood Oak Fired Kitchen, and Zola Restaurant..

You must be 21+.  Parking is free. For more info call the Iron Fork Hotline at 244.7989 x341

Grammy-award winning artist Vince Gill will take a lesson from another “artist” of sorts, Johnny Carrabba – who has “cooked up” a full menu for Vince to prepare for the love of his life, Amy Grant.

“The Art of Expression:  A Celebration of Music, Culinary and Visual Art,” will take place on Friday, May 9, from 6:30 - 11:00 p.m. at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville.  

An intimate crowd of spectators will watch Johnny Carrabba take center stage for a cooking demonstration with Vince Gill.  Guests will enjoy an assortment of food and beverages followed by an acoustic performance from Vince in the Ford Theater.  

Tickets are $200, and proceeds from the event will benefit The Campus for Human Development and Room at The Inn, serving Nashville’s homeless community since the 1960s.  

Only 200 tickets are available and are on-sale beginning Friday, April 25, at 10:00 a.m. EST.

Evening Highlights Include:
6:30 p.m. – Welcome reception, hors d’oeuvres and cocktails
7:30 p.m. – Cooking demonstration with Vince Gill and Johnny Carrabba
8:30 p.m. — Carrabba’s food and beverage tasting
9:30 p.m. – Vince Gill acoustic performance

For more information on the event or to purchase tickets, please click here.

Some posts just stop you in your tracks.  ‘A Man’s Gotta Eat’ has done it to me again…

Whenever I want something fast and simple for dinner, I’ll whip up a box of Helper, open a can of peas, and drench the whole shebang in Trappey’s Louisiana Hot Sauce. Heaven in a single skillet, indeed!

The TOTAL Antithesis of EVERYTHING I Believe In…

yet somehow, I love this guy!

My friend Annie over at Forest Street Kitchen, a favorite food blog of mine - is running a contest for suggestions on what to fill this certain special bowl with and well, it is all too complicated to try and explain so I think you should go on over there and throw your name in the proverbial hat.  Knowing Annie, it’ll be worth your while..

The person who makes the best suggestion for an edible substance to fill the bowl on or before Friday, April 25^th will win a surprise. The bowl is about 6 inches in diameter, and about 6 inches at its highest points…

Lesley, our beloved token vegetarian over at Lesley Eats finally made it over to the brand new vegetarian spot in town, The Veggie Cafe.

it’s nice to read a menu and be able to look at everything and know it’s something I can eat–to choose my lunch.

I used to frequent the vegetarian spots in town when they were in Nashville.  Sadly they all went away.  And now The Veggie Cafe is a bit out of the way for some of us.  But if you’re ever on that side of the river and you’re so inclined… Lesley suggests that you check it out. 

As for me, if I’m on that side of town, I’m more of a ‘Marche‘ kinda girl myself…

I think with those two questions, I have covered everyone. Even Short & Fat. But if you like to eat and win at the same time, then Claudia has a challenge for you.

so here’s how it works… ‘the nashville scene‘ has generously given ‘ceF‘ 5 pair of tickets to this totally awesome event.  so if you’re going to be in nashville on april 30th, and would like to attend ’IRON FORK‘, the culinary event of the year (details listed below), please just leave a comment telling me why you’d like to go - and be sure to get your point across, ok?  i will pick the 5 best comments.  because it is my blog and quite frankly - i’ve got all the power here, within the unlimited confines of my cyber walls.

Now, dear readers, I’m going to give you a tip. Claudia is a clever gal and I’d be willing to bet that the cleverer the betterer with those comments. Okay, that’s the only tip I’m going to give you. Because after seeing the featured chefs for this event, I really want to go.

Hurry up, though. The deadline for comment submission is midnight Monday. Luckily, that’s a little over a week before the event, so if you don’t win, you’ll still have time to buy tickets in advance. Which you should think about, because Iron Fork benefits St. Luke’s Community House. A friend of mine works there and she’s good people, so help some folks out.

Head over to Claudia’s place at cook eat FRET for more details and perhaps a little insight to give you a competitive edge.

And what a night it was!  Check out Lesley Eats review of the ”simple carbs” event of ‘08.  I may Never. Ever. touch a cupcake again… Ever.

…cook eat FRET hosted a cupcake challenge at her home and I was lucky enough to score an invitation. Four area bakeries plus a mystery entrant…

All up we had 23 people and 136 cupcakes. 

Do the math… and then read Lesley’s thorough review.

What in heavens name is wrong with these people?

“What will they call it? Farfallegate? The Rosemary Chicken Dome Scandal? Perhaps something with the ubiquitous Rachael Ray in it.

It seems that Cindy McCain, John McCain’s perfect, blonde beer-baroness wife is about to find herself painted as the latest example of plagiarism on the campaign trail...”

Laura Creekmore is talking veggie burgers. And she’s sort of weirded out about it all.

I ate the creepiest veggie burger ever today for lunch. [Follow Nashville veggie friends: Let me know if you eat on West End and I’ll share more details, like where not to eat if you want to avoid the same thing.]

The weird thing: It tasted good. But I couldn’t eat it. The burger was the consistency of very very rare ground beef. And there was a smoky flavor that really contributed to the meat sensation. But this was the clincher: They appeared to have used beets or beet juice in the burger, because the grains, which made up the majority of the burger, were pink. Pink, people. Like raw beef.

Seriously. You do not want your veggie burger to evoke raw beef.

Lesley? Nashveggie? Got any ideas.

There are no words.

Only one question…

What if you have to pee?

I saw this article and loved it.  Because as an omnivore, this is the way I can justify eating meat.  The animal was raised locally in a great environment, fed top quality feed - and then used in its near entirety.  No cherry picking just for the tenderloin or the ribs…

Jennifer Justus from The Tennessean writes a wonderful article entitled City House chefs go whole hog.

As one of the only restaurants in the state to order whole hogs from local farmers, Wilson brings to Nashville a new culinary movement dedicated to an old way of operating. By committing to use every part of the pig — from snout to tail — he makes no careless waste as he breaks it down into chops, hams, sausages and other products. Just as celebrity chef Jamie Oliver recently slaughtered a chicken on live television to promote awareness of humane treatment of livestock, chefs are becoming increasingly interested not just in serving local fare but in knowing how it was raised and treating it with respect. While it would be quicker, easier and cheaper to purchase pig parts individually, Wilson says his way is the right way, and his wholesome animal will pay off on the plate in quality and freshness of meat as well as creative use of parts.

“People might say, ‘Ooh, gross,’ but how can you hold it with the reverence that it needs?” he asked. “It’s important for people to know where their food comes from, because I don’t know how you respect it if you don’t.”

The majority of our children grow up on McFoodstuff’s having no idea where their hamburger even comes from. They often dislike vegetables and it’s a constant battle to get them to want anything other than pizza and grilled processed orange cheese without the crusts and burgers. Alice Waters from famed Chez Panisse was the first american chef to elevate the farmer to rock star status. She began urban school programs that had students farming their own small plot of dirt and harvesting and cooking their bounty.  It was all about making the connection…

Perhaps I digress but respect and understanding make all the difference. If I couldn’t source my meat from reputable producers, I’d be a vegetarian for sure. And there really is some kind of peaceful beauty from plucking a carrot out of the ground, gathering your salad from your garden 20 minutes before you prepare it or snipping a fresh herb or two. Not to mention the tomatoes…

And if you would, please try and consider the animal you’re eating, where it came from, how it lived and what it ate. Be grateful that it gave its life to nourish your body and perhaps branch out to a few different “cuts”…

In an op-ed piece from todays ‘New York Times’ dining section is what i believe to be a very important article, Grains Gone Wild. 

These days you hear a lot about the world financial crisis. But there’s another world crisis under way — and it’s hurting a lot more people.

I don’t know about you, but I prefer restaurants with patios. With the new indoor smoking ban, I imagine there are going to be more patios available, but (unfortunately) I’m guessing they’ll be populated with smokers. Nonetheless, it’d be nice to have a list of all the great places to hang out for some drinks and fresh (*cough*) air. And lookie here, the Nashville Feed’s got a poll up to get your opinion on the best. Hop on over and register your opinion. But if you don’t have an amazon.com account to add your favorite (in case it’s not listed), leave a comment here. My vote goes to Yazoo Brewery’s tasting room. Though the next time I go, I’ll probably take my own chair for the courtyard. It gets pretty busy there on Saturday afternoons.

Oh, and I do like having some sangria and chips over at La Paz. Oh, and Bistro 215 has a nice patio even if it does overlook the very busy Green Hills Mall parking lot and there’s Rumors and Mirror over on 12South…

It’s one of America’s tastiest streets! 

Or so the people at Good Magazine think…

What Nolensville Road lacks in charm and walkability, it compensates for with a thorough culinary road map to the New South—count on Mexican, Middle Eastern, and African cuisines…

They’ve definitely got that first part right… check out the article for some culinary leads.

I heart Jim Voorhies.

He’s smart.
He’s cool.
He’s an endlessly interesting and prolific son of a gun.

And he can COOK.

Ok - or so he says. 
But I believe him.

Because I heart Jim Voorhies.

Having said all that, the man professes to have one helluva good chinese dish, brought to you in 2 parts due to a variation.

By me. 
Because I care about you and your Chinese eating ways…

Ok, well I’m not as ecstatic as some folks about it but i am pretty pleased that Nashville is getting more and more choices.

Read about it here, here and here!

And The Tenessean

And The City Paper

And the Nashville Business Journal

There are more but i reckon we’ve now got it just about covered…

Ginger ventured out and about to a local wine tasting in La Vergne, and being the good samaritan that she is, has reported back.

On a personal note, I had never had a chance to learn and understand the differences in various wines. I honestly just thought people were being “wine snobs” about it. This was such a great opportunity to taste ten(!) different kinds of wine by just sipping without having to waste an entire glass (or wake up with a headache the next morning)!

Yes, just another typical evening in La Vergne… and hey, there’s another coming up in May so stay tuned!

I like mexican food as much as the next guy.  I really do.  And if I want to eat it in Nashville and enjoy it, I usually have to get to cooking.  Because the general consensus amongst people who fancy themselves in-the-know, is that the Mexican options in this town are ‘Not Good”.  It’s pretty much the same 7 ingredients in slightly different configurations.  But with Los Arcos, I was hopeful.  There was some “buzz” and it was all pretty good.  So some of us serious foodie type blogger peoples (Ceeelcee, Lesley, Tupp and Knucklehead - and ElZ) ventured out and well - it started out fine, and then got pretty damned mediocre quickly…  and then there was the food.

No… I kid, I kid.  The company was absolutely lovely.

But alas, I won’t be back to Los Arcos, although I must tell you that i did discover an awesome new hot sauce that had a zippy kinda thing going on that I quite liked… and the chips were pretty wonderful too - fresh and warm and not too salty or greasy. That was both nice and a cool 600 calories easily (sigh)…  The usual tamales/enchiladas/rice/beans/guacamole/salsa were - ok.  A couple of folks had the tilapia and it looked - ok.

The tres leches cake was well, decorative? The industrial strength ’whipped topping’ was pretty gross but i gotta say, i hadn’t had a maraschino cherry in awhile and that was kind of fun.  Pardon the shaky shot but i hadda share.

So, see?   
It does pays to get out of your pajamas on a monday morning (<- me talking to self)…
If only for the repartee.

In case you missed the memo or have been hiding under a rock, I need to tell you about Nashville’s favorite local food blog, ‘Bites‘, brought to you by the Nashville Scene and manned by Carrington Fox, their uber cool, sassy and in-the-know food critic.  Jim Ridley chimes in quite frequently - flooring us regularly with his superb writing and quick wit.

If you like to keep abreast of what’s going on in this town as relates to all different restaurants - AS WELL AS the occasional conversation about the best Cupcake in town, terribly curious foodstuffs or the industrial grade whipped topping on a Krystal MilkQuake  - it is THE place to see and be seen - in a cyber sorta way…

And well, it’s totally fun. 

Confused?

But now you can!  It’s yet another of lifes mysteries SOLVED thanks to the women of Home Ec 101.

So like if you eat and own a refridgerator, this could totally help…

OR…