Blogher Month in Review for February 07

Besides writing Kalyn's Kitchen and teaching school, I also write for a site called Blogher, which features women bloggers, and sponsors a fabulous conference for bloggers (men and women!). Blogher 07 will be in Chicago this year! At the end of each month I'm sharing links to the things I've been writing about on Blogher this month:

Recipe Update: Chicken with Asparagus and Three Cheeses

I'm going through my recipe archives and updating recipes that don't have photos. Sometimes I'll make a few slight changes to the recipe, like I did this time for an updated version with a little less sauce and less cheese. It's still rich and creamy enough that this should be a "once in a while" treat for South Beach Dieters.

Chicken and Pinto Bean Soup with Lime and Cilantro

If you haven't been watching as the huge collection of soup recipes has been coming in during February, there are a whole lot of them collected now over at A Veggie Venture. Go check out all the soups. I'm sharing one more soup recipe before the event ends.

This recipe started with left-over rotisserie chicken, and I had in mind for this to be a white bean chili, but when it came time to put the beans in, I only had pinto beans. It didn't matter because when the soup was finished, I thought the combination of pinto beans, lime, and cilantro was perfect. The mystery ingredient this time is a little bit of hummus, giving a bit more body to the soup.

Bengali Red Dal Curry from Jake

I've written on this blog more than once about my feelings of intimidation about making authentic Indian food, and confessed that I use things like Pataks Biryani Paste when I get that Indian food craving. This fear of Indian cooking is still alive somewhere in my cooking psyche, but when my 20-something nephew Jake raved about a dal recipe he'd made, and then showed up at my house with this fantastic dish, I realized I need to get over it.

Calling All Food Bloggers: Help Plan Blogher 07

Were You There Last Year?

Many of you may remember me writing about attending the Blogher conference last year and meeting other food bloggers. Planning is now getting underway for Blogher 07, which will be in Chicago this year. I'm involved this year as a co-chair of a track called The Art of Life, which will will "be devoted to the passions about which so many of us blog...food, art, photography, crafts, knitting, writing, poetry, music and more."

Arugula Salad Recipe with Marinated Artichokes, Peppers, Goat Cheese and More

By far the most popular category in my recipe archives is Easy South Beach Recipes, where I share recipes for things that are delicious, South Beach Diet friendly, and which have only five main ingredients or less. I loved this recipe so much that I ate it two three days in a row and decided it was fabulous enough to be my offering for Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted by Anna from Anna's Cool Finds this week.

Please Comment: This Reader Survey is Floating in Front of My Eyes

No food today. Instead I'm hoping you'll take the little survey below and leave your answers in the comments.

I admit I am totally ripping off this idea from Adam, The Amateur Gourmet, but I have a very good reason for not posting a recipe today. It all started Saturday while I was working away in the kitchen, when suddenly something that looked like a piece of brownish-purple yarn started floating in front of my face. After much squinting and blinking, and a fair amount of Googling, I discovered I have what's called a "floater."

Recipe Favorites: Spaghetti with Italian Sausage and Arugula

There's nothing I like more than Italian Sausage, unless it's arugula, so a dish that combines the two of them has to be a recipe favorite. And did I mention there's freshly grated Parmesan cheese? It just doesn't get much better than this. This is a photo from my old camera, but still I think this looks pretty tasty. I wish I had some right now.

White Bean and Ham Soup with Chard

Surely you've heard about it. Alanna of a Veggie Venture is collecting soup recipes for February. There's probably nothing I love to make more than soup. I'm having fun creating recipes for soups with greens, and this week it's chard for the surprise ingredient.  I love chard, and knew it would add great flavor to what would have otherwise been a fairly ordinary white bean and ham soup. What I didn't know was that when I used red chard, it would give the soup a lovely color. This is truly one of my best soup recipes yet.

South Beach Recipes of the Week #25: Fish and Seafood

It's another edition of South Beach Recipes of the Week where I share some of those yummy, low glycemic index recipes I spot all the time on my favorite food blogs. When I'm reading blogs (which I spend *far* too much time doing) I'm always pleased by how many South Beach diet friendly recipes I find. This week it was recipes for fish or seafood dishes that caught my eye. If you're not interested in the South Beach Diet, no worries, this is just simply good tasting food

Recipe Favorites: Sauteed Scallops with Garlic

I mentioned recently that I'm going to start spotlighting some recipes that are my absolute favorites out of all the yummy things I've made for Kalyn's Kitchen, and this is one that would probably be in the top ten. That's assuming I had a top ten, which I don't because I probably could never narrow it down to just ten recipes.

Chicken Soup with Collard Greens, Carrots, and Brown Rice

I've been in a Soup and Stew mood the last few weeks, and I wanted to make another new soup for Alanna's soup event, which is happening during February. I had a lot of left-over chicken from one of those great Costco rotisserie chickens, so I was looking for an unusual twist on Chicken soup when I saw a recipe in The Gourmet Cookbook for Chicken and Rice soup using brown Rice. Gourmet explained how the same long-cooking qualities that make some people not like brown rice make it perfect for soup, and it made sense to me. Plus, brown rice is great for the South Beach Diet, and I love the nutty flavor.

A South Beach Diet Friendly Dessert for Your Valentine's Day Dinner

Valentine's Day is coming, second only to Christmas on the list of days it's hard to be watching your sugar intake. Although I'm not really a big dessert eater, I know that for a lot of you who are making a special dinner, dessert is a must. If your Valentine is a South Beach Dieter, or just someone who needs to watch their sugar intake, here are a few dessert ideas from the recipe archives that might be a hit. Pictured above is Peach and Berry Cobbler. Next time I made this I would use all peaches or all berries, but it was very tasty. If the thought of a cobbler with a whole wheat biscuit crust doesn't do it for you, here are some other desserts I have enjoyed when I needed a little sweetness in my life.

Can You Imagine: People All Over the World Blogging About Herbs for 69 Weeks!

Well, I can hardly believe it, but this Recap is Weekend Herb Blogging #69, and since we skipped Christmas, it's more than 69 weeks we've been blogging about herbs! WHB is at Kalyn's Kitchen this week because Ulrike switched with me when I had a frozen water pipe. Turned out she now has her mother in the hospital, so I'm hoping her mom's recovering as quickly as my water pipes got thawed.

Rand's Crab and Tangerine Nicoise with Lemon Vinaigrette

If you read this blog very much, you've heard me talk about my brother Rand, the talented artist who designs the headers and other graphics on Kalyn's Kitchen. What I don't talk about as much is that Rand is also a fabulous cook. Since he's an artist, he cooks in a completely right-brained way, and sometimes says he's baffled as to how I can keep track of ingredients and procedures for a recipe and write it in a way that others can reproduce the dish. (I'm also pretty much an intuitive cook, but I have a set of notebooks by category where I force myself to constantly jot down notes the entire time I'm cooking something.)

Friday Food Porn: Superbowl Party Food

On Sunday a major portion of the U.S. population went a little bit crazy with Superbowl mania. I admit that I don't care at all about football or the superbowl. However, I did have fun at a Superbowl party at my brother Mark's new house. Here's a little superbowl party food porn that I may or may not have eaten. If you're following the South Beach Diet, remember Friday Food Porn is just for fun. Do not try to duplicate this food at home! (There's only one food item here that's completely South Beach Diet approved, and that happens to be what I took to the party. Leave a comment if you think you know what it is.)

Kalyn's Kitchen Picks: Thai Kitchen Lite Coconut Milk

You can't imagine how delighted I was when I found a reference to Coconut milk in The South Beach Diet Quick and Easy Cookbook. It was listed with foods in the front of the book, with a reminder to purchase light, unsweetened coconut milk. I'd been buying Thai Kitchen lite coconut milk for years, and love the interesting flavor it adds to soups and curries. The only thing I don't like about this product is the spelling of the word *lite* which does grate on the teacher side of my personality a bit.

Recipe Favorites: Spicy Cherry Tomato Sauce for Pasta

One of the interesting things about writing a food blog is the need to keep creating new recipes all the time. I'm guessing regular cooks are much more likely to have favorite recipes they make over and over. I never post recipes unless I like how they turn out and think others will enjoy them, but still some recipes certainly fall into the category of *favorites* much more than others. I've decided once in a while I'm going to start re-posting my recipe favorites for readers who missed them the first time around.

Lentil and Sausage Soup with Cabbage

For the month of February my friend Alanna at a Veggie Venture is focusing on soup, and it sounds like so much fun I'm going to join her a few times, either with new soups or recipes from the archives you might have missed out on.  Here's to lots of great recipes for making delicious soup this month!

Chicken Lasagna with Dreamfields Pasta

One product I've consistently raved about is Dreamfields pasta, the low carb pasta that lets me enjoy pasta dishes and not gain weight. Dreamfields is great for lower glycemic eating because it's lower in digestible carbs. I cheered for joy when Dreamfields started making lasagna noodles. If you've been disappointed in other types of whole grain or low carb pasta, I promise you, Dreamfields tastes exactly like regular pastas. I've had many people tell me how happy they were with it. (And no, Dreamfields has never sent me free pasta or paid me to mention it on the blog!)

South Beach Recipes of the Week #24: Chicken

South Beach Recipes of the Week are those yummy, low glycemic index recipes I spot all the time on my favorite food blogs and share with people who read my blog looking for South Beach diet friendly recipes. This week I'm focusing on chicken, something that offers endless options for inventive cooks. If you're not interested in the South Beach Diet, no worries, this is just simply good tasting food.