BlogHer Links for Food Lovers

Besides the things I write about on Kalyn's Kitchen, I'm also proud to be a food writer for BlogHer.com. Here are links for some things on BlogHer that might interest my readers or other food bloggers.

Recipe for Black Bean, Rice, and Cilantro Salad

This recipe is one I created about 15 years ago when my friends Jeanne Zeigler and Kip Greene got married. In those days I called it Jeanne's Wedding Salad and it was a big hit with clients at Lake Powell, back when I was catering houseboat trips. This isn't a quick recipe, but it's ultra delicious, and I still have friends who request it for parties. Now that I'm eating the South Beach Diet way, I made the salad lower on the glycemic index by adding a bit more veggies and using Uncle Ben's Converted rice, which is the lowest glycemic index type of white rice. For the special occasion we're celebrating, I'm renaming it My Favorite Herb Salad.

Who's Hosting Weekend Herb Blogging?

Weekend Herb Blogging is a food blogging event sponsored by Kalyn's Kitchen where each week food bloggers around the world post recipes about cooking with herbs and unusal vegetables or interesting ways to use vegetables, and on the weekend, we publish a Recap with links to all the posts.

Weekend Herb Blogging Information Page

October 27 - November 2, 2008, we are celebrating the Three Year Anniversary of Weekend Herb Blogging. After that date, Weekend Herb Blogging will be managed by Haalo from Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once. Here is where to find the Weekend Herb Blogging Information on her blog.

Weekend Herb Blogging Year in Review: Weeks 41-51

This is the last of a series of year-in-review posts to celebrate reaching week 52 of Weekend Herb Blogging, and I don't know if I could have gone on another day! Check out the first four reviews if you missed them. It seems like weeks since I've posted a new recipe, but I'm including one with this post from a past Weekend Herb Blogging. If you want more, there are plenty in the recipe archives.

South Beach Diet Information Posts on Kalyn's Kitchen

Kalyn's Kitchen is primarily about food, but occasionally Kalyn does write a post about The South Beach Diet. This page is an index for those posts and other helpful links for South Beach Dieters.

Weekend Herb Blogging Year In Review: Weeks 31-40

(Still celebrating fifty-two weeks of Weekend Herb Blogging, but if you're coming here looking for South Beach Diet recipes, check out the recipe archives.)

Weekend Herb Blogging Year In Review: Weeks 21-30

Here at Kalyn's Kitchen we're still celebrating reaching week 52 of Weekend Herb Blogging.

Weekend Herb Blogging Year in Review: Weeks 11-20

(All this week, Kalyn's Kitchen will be celebrating fifty-two weeks of Weekend Herb Blogging, but if you're coming here looking for South Beach Diet recipes, there's plenty of those in the recipe archives to keep you busy.)

Weekend Herb Blogging Year in Review: Weeks 1-10

(All this week, Kalyn's Kitchen will be celebrating fifty-two weeks of Weekend Herb Blogging, but if you're coming here looking for South Beach Diet recipes, there's plenty of those in the recipe archives to keep you busy.)

Weekend Herb Blogging #51 Recap Thinking about our Favorite Herbs!

It's Weekend Herb Blogging #51, which means 51 weeks in a row that people all over the world have been writing about interesting herbs, plants, veggies, and flowers and sharing the recipes. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm excited and a bit amazed that WHB has lasted 51 weeks. I hope you're thinking about what your very favorite herb is for the week 52 celebration next week. I've already gotten one entry, and another person wrote saying she would post it from her vacation!

Useful Links for Food Bloggers

This page is my attempt to list places on the web that might be interesting or useful to other food bloggers. Of course the list of sites is growing faster than my ability to track them, but I'm doing my best!

Recipe for Baked Chicken Stuffed with Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto, Basil, and Goat Cheese (phase one)

Yesterday I posted a really great recipe for Baked Chicken Stuffed with Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto, Basil, and Goat Cheese. I loved the way this recipe turned out, and if you like the sound of those ingredients I hope you'll try it. I actually made that chicken nearly two weeks ago when a friend at school brought me the jar of the sun-dried tomato pesto I showed in the step-by-step instructions. That jar of pesto was the one that inspired me to try making my own Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto, something I still can't stop eating.

A Special Weekend Herb Blogging Event !Tell Us Your Very Favorite Herb

You've probably heard of Weekend Herb Blogging, the event where people around the world write about interesting herbs, plants, veggies, and flowers, and then on the weekend there's a recap with links to all the posts. The event travels around the world, with me hosting every other weekend, as the blog where WHB started.

Grilled Fusion Chicken Recipe

(In May of 2007 I updated this recipe with more instructions about how to cook grilled chicken.  At that time it wasn't possible to move a post forward without breaking the link, so that's a brand new post.  I'm removing the recipe from here so it doesn't show up twice in search engines, but if you have it bookmarked you can use the link above to find the updated recipe.)

South Beach Recipes of the Week #12: Zucchini and Eggplant

Once a week I like to spotlight some low glycemic index recipes I find on other food blogs. If you don't know about the glycemic index, it's what the South Beach Diet is based on. It's been fun to spotlight recipes from other blogs to show how easy it is to find or adapt recipes that are South Beach Diet friendly.

A Block Party on My Street (Friday Food Porn)

I live in a great Salt Lake City neighborhood where we close off the street once in a while for a block party. For some reason, I've been away the last couple of years, but last Saturday I was there with my new camera, snapping some food porn. I took the camera home when it got dark, so I missed some tasty offerings that arrived late, but here's some of the food we shared.

Recipe for Spicy Cherry Tomato Sauce for Pasta

Every year when it's time to plant the garden, I have a bit of an argument with myself regarding how many cherry tomato plants to buy. I like cherry tomatoes well enough, but there are so many interesting varieties of regular tomatoes. Some years I think about eliminating cherry tomatoes altogether, but then I think about not being able to make this sauce.

Easy Recipe for Grilled Mushrooms

Grilled Mushrooms taste fantastic with just about anything!

This is one of those recipes that's so ridiculously easy to make, so delicious, and so healthy, that you'll wonder why you shouldn't make it at least once a week. A recipe couldn't get much easier than this with only two ingredients. It does help a lot to have a pan like the one below, which looks like a small wok with holes and sits on the top of the grill. If you don't have one of these pans, you might be able to cook this right on the grill if your grill slats are not too wide. But look for a grill pan; I got the one in the photo below at T.J. Maxx for only $6.00.

Sliced Tomato, Olive and Goat Cheese Salad with Onion-Caper Vinaigrette

Tonight when I was thinking about what to make for dinner, I suddenly realized that those fresh-from-the-garden tomatoes are only going to be around for a few more weeks and I better get trying the rest of the tomato recipes I've been thinking about this summer. This one is a recipe from a book called The Low Carb Gourmet by Karen Barnaby, truly a fabulous cookbook whether or not you're into the whole low-carb thing. I did adapt the recipe a little, but the basic flavor combination was inspired by the recipe in the book. I'm re-discovering this book, so you'll be seeing more recipes from it in the future.

Remembering the Victims: The 2996 Project

It's called The 2996 Project for the 2996 people who lost their lives in the collapse of the World Trade Center and other terrorist acts on September 11, 2001. It's a great idea and although I wasn't really planning on blogging about 9-11, when I heard about this I thought it deserved a mention.

Weekend Herb Blogging #49 Recap: What's Your Favorite Herb?

Weekend Herb blogging #49 is here, and people are still coming up with great posts each and every week featuring interesting herbs, plants, veggies, and flowers. In case you don't remember, Weekend Herb Blogging started as a bit of a joke. Now, in a few weeks it will be one year, and I'm planning something a little special for the week of September 25 - October 1, so start thinking now about this: What's your very favorite herb?

South Beach Recipes of the Week: Fish

Every Saturday I like to spotlight some low glycemic index recipes I find on other food blogs. If you don't know about the glycemic index, it's what the South Beach Diet is based on. This week I'm focusing on some great looking recipes for fish. All these recipes are great for any phase of the South Beach Diet, but if you're not on a diet, just eat them for the great taste!

Teacher Lunches (Friday Food Porn)

Although I spend a lot of time cooking, photographing food, and writing up recipes for Kalyn's Kitchen, my *real* job is teaching 29 fourth graders every day, a much more challenging prospect than writing fun posts about what I'm cooking. There are a lot of things I like about teaching, but one thing I don't like about the job is not being able to go out for lunch.

Peach and Berry Cobbler Recipe

Peach and Berry Cobbler, with a topping made from whole wheat flour.

It doesn't take much time looking through the recipe archives over on the left to realize that I'm a lot more into salad than I am dessert. It was actually a savory dish that led me to this recipe. When Farmgirl posted her recipe for Savory Tomato Pesto Pie a while back, she mentioned that she had been reading The Sonoma Diet Book and it had a good recipe for Peachy Berry Cobbler. I was interested, since one of the desserts I do love is peach cobbler and since the recipe uses whole wheat flour, which is a "good carb" for South Beach dieters. Farmgirl offered to send me the recipe, and I took her up on it.

Photo Studio in a Box If You're Taking Food Photos, Check It Out!

I love taking food photos and I'm working hard to improve my photography skills. I know I'm not a great food photographer like some bloggers, but my pictures started to improve when another blogger that I completely respect and admire had the courage to tell me I needed a new camera. I took her advice and made the investment in a Cannon Rebel XT 8MP Digital SLR Camera and a Canon EF 50MM f/2.5 macro lens. (Edit 11-2007: I now use the Canon 100mm macro lens for most of my food photos.) I'll always be grateful to her for the feedback, which got me started towards taking better quality photos.

Recipe for Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto or Spread

My Italian is pretty basic, although I studied it a bit when I was going to be traveling to Italy, and I'm learning ingredient names from my great friend Ilva's blog. But I know enough Italian to guess that Festa al Fresco means something like a feast of fresh ingredients. So when I heard Ivonne of Creampuffs in Venice and Lis of La Mia Cucina were hosting La Festa al Fresco, I was excited about participating in the biggest virtual food bloggers picnic ever.

How to Make and Freeze Tomato Sauce (The Green Blog Project)

I was completely captivated about the idea behind The Green Blog Project when I first heard about it. It was the brainchild of LG from Ginger and Mango that every food blogger should try to grow some kind of food themselves, and then post about what kind of dish they made from it on their blog.

South Beach Recipes of the Week #10: Summer Foods

On Saturdays I spotlight South Beach Diet friendly recipes I find on other food blogs since many people don't know much about the glycemic index, which is what the South Beach Diet is based on. This week I'm focusing on some great looking recipes for summer foods. All these recipes are great for any phase of the South Beach Diet.

Cafe Trio in Salt Lake City (Friday Food Porn)

A few weeks ago I mentioned that an old friend had reconnected with me because a friend had googled her and found her name on my blog. Cheryl came to town and we went to dinner, and she's just as gorgeous and brilliant as ever. We had so much fun catching up, eating and drinking and dishing about life, and I'm glad she comes to Salt Lake regularly so we can do it again soon.