Country Living Blue Ribbon Blogger Awards

 

I am so very excited, humbled, and honored to announce that Dixie Caviar has been nominated for Country Living's 2012 Blue Ribbon Blogger Awards in the cooking category. Finalists were chosen from 2,830 submissions, so needless to say I am pinching myself to be included, not to mention that Country Living is one of my favorite magazines!

The winners in each category will be selected by a celebrity panel of judges and flown to New York City for a blogger luncheon, in addition to a feature in the January 2013 issue of the magazine. (Seriously, how awesome is that?!)

But get this—there's also a Readers' Choice Award, kind of like a wild card, and the blog with the most votes overall also wins a trip to the Big Apple. I'd be so grateful if you voted for Dixie Caviar, shared the link with your friends, and helped support me in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I'll be offering free hugs to those of you that vote! XOXOXOXO!

CLICK HERE TO VOTE

P.S.  if you are a particularly adoring fan of Dixie Caviar, by all means feel free to vote once per day. I won't judge! (wink, wink.)

Birthday Blessings, Coast to Coast

Hey, hey everybody! I took a little mini-vacay to celebrate the big 2-9 and am only now starting to recover from the whirlwind week. I spent a few delicious days in San Francisco with my family—my sister just moved into a fabulous house in Mill Valley—but I returned home just in time to spend a perfect birthday Sunday with Walter and the pups.

It would have been the best birthday yet, except for one minor hitch: my luggage was stolen on the Marta ride home, right beneath my very eyes. (Well okay, I was reading this, so I may have not been paying enough attention.) While nothing crazy, crazy valuable was stolen, it was still a devastating loss. Any guys reading this might not understand, but girls, you get it. Losing all of your fancy schmancy makeup just plain sucks. And of course I always pack my very favorite clothes when I travel, and I always pack too much. So now there is a serious dent in my wardrobe, not too mention the hard-earned J. Crew purse I bought myself when I quit the restaurant industry. The worst of the damage was a simple gold necklace with a tiny whisk charm, a gift from my sister that I am rarely without. Of course it wouldn't mean anything to anyone else, but it meant a lot to me.

I spent the better half of Saturday wasting too many tears, but thanks to my sweet fiancé (and a few too many of these) I finally started to look on the bright side. Because at the end of the day, I had so many generous people offer to help replace what I lost—which is a huge blessing in itself—but I also have the constant love of my friends, family, and furry babies to make me realize just how lucky I am. (Still, a girl can only hope that someone gets as much happiness from my fake Prada makeup bag as I did, and that my beloved curling iron is put to good use.) I know that eventually I will look at this tiny bump as a life lesson, although I do hope it is a lesson about counting my blessings more than a lesson in trusting others less. I actually enjoy having faith in people and hope to keep it that way.

All things considered, I still had an absolutely fabulous birthday week! I was only in California for what seemed like minutes, but we packed it full of adventures. One day was spent exploring Mill Valley, where I ate perfectly charred wood-fired pizza, chased down a few freshly-squeezed mimosas, explored Tyler Florence's dreamy cooking store, and ogled over the exquisite (albeit overpriced) housewares at Summer House. On the second day, thanks to my sweet father, I finally got to have my first Zuni Cafe roast chicken & bread salad experience, which was more incredible than I could have ever imagined. My niece and nephew even kept still for a whole hour while we waited because they know it is that good. We spent the rest of the afternoon viewing the America's Cup sailing trials in the Bay, followed by an insanely lavish lobster feast at my sister-in-law Anne's house. And to think, it wasn't even my birthday yet!!

On Sunday, the actual big day, Walt took extra special care of me after all of Saturday's drama. We started the morning with (his favorite) crispy waffles and then set out for a day of "shopping." And yes, I actually scored a man that likes antiquing almost as much as I do. And no, I never thought the word 'antiquing' would come out of my mouth in an enthusiastic way. Before he had to physically drag me out of Kudzu, we ended up with a funky Creole painting for the kitchen and two vintage train lanterns destined to become our new bedside lamps. Spending money worked up our appetite, so we overindulged in homemade onion dip and French fries at Farm Burger, followed by a Target buying spree. The rest of the evening was spent lounging in our pjs, devouring Dairy Queen birthday cake with Hershey's syrup on top, and Walt even let me pick out a movie!

Granted we probably spent too much, and we definitely ate too much, but I really wouldn't have it any other way. It's just a shame that it all had to end on Monday. If I had my choice, birthdays would last forever, and then getting older would never seem that bad. Oh well. I guess I'll just have to count the days until next year. Bring it on, dirty thirty!

Image sources: Board one: (Sign)  Summer House | (Lobster) Martha Stewart |  (Golden Gate Bridge) me | (Zuni Chicken) Ben Cooks Everything | (Coffee Beans) Culinaire Lifestyle | (Mocha) Yelp Board two: (Painting) me, (Birthday candles) me | (Train Lantern) J Peterman | (Burger)  Farm Burger

Spotlight On: Pinterest

This is the second post in a series about my personal methods of recipe organization. Check out the first post, Spotlight On: Eat Your Books, for more of my tips and tricks.

Hi, my name is Nealey and I am a hoarder. A magazine hoarder, that is. I can write that openly because I really, really hope it is a thing of the past.

It irks me to the core to get rid of a magazine. What if I lose some single, mind-altering tip or recipe that otherwise could have changed my life forever? Or what if the publishing industry dies out completely, leaving any crisp and unstained copies of, gasp, paper—à la Gourmet—as the foodie equivalent to a mint condition Babe Ruth baseball card. Okay, now I'm just talking crazy, but you get the picture: I like my magazines where I can see them.

But once I started cohabiting with a certain fellow named Walter, something (meaning me) had to give. Take, for instance, our cross-country move, when I tried to shove three bulging boxes of various food and lifestyle magazines into an already overpacked U-Haul. Despite shedding my best "tears of despair," only seven years of Martha Stewart Weddings and my treasured Domino collection made the cut.

Unfortunately moving to a new city, however far away, didn't release me from my freakish tendencies, and so the vicious cycle continued. As quickly as the forwarded subscriptions began to arrive did the new magazine piles begin to creep into every spare corner of our home. (To be perfectly honest, the stacks really just got banished to the bottomless pit otherwise known as the guestroom. It's where words, among other things, go to die.) For a few too many months, the only solution was to just shut the damn door.

Completely fed up with my mess—and possibly hopped up on too much caffeine—I finally said enough is enough and took back the reins to the paper monster. One hour became one Saturday, which in turn became one of many Saturdays. I ruthlessly tore out page after page deemed worthy of salvation and sent the rest straight to the curb. I took few prisoners and left no survivors. But that was only the beginning. Upon finding myself with hundreds (Thousands! Millions!) of magazine tear sheets, mainly piles of recipes, I needed a new plan of attack. Which brings me to my infamous 3-ring binders.

This next part started out innocently enough. Armed with a mega-pack of plastic sheet protectors, I began to organize all the recipes by course. In fact, I was so proud of my little organizational feat that I actually felt the need to keep the progress going (which never happens despite my good intentions). I was diligent about ripping tear sheets out while reading a magazine; the leftovers were immediately discarded. The trouble with my system, however, was that one 3-ring binder turned into two, and two turned into three, and then well, you get the picture.

It was fun to occasionally page through my "homemade" cookbooks, but I still wasn't utilizing the recipes like I should. You know, actually cooking from them. Which brings us to Pinterest, my light at the end of the (hoarding) tunnel. Of course everybody and their mother has discovered this visually-stimulating virtual time warp, so I'm not here to tell you what you already know. I just want to explain how I am using Pinterest to save me from myself. Because there is an actual point to this story, I swear.

In a serious attempt at procrastination one morning, a light bulb went off in my head: what if I upload all of my tear sheets to Pinterest, ridding me of a paper trail forever? I was already pinning interesting recipes I stumbled across online, so this couldn't be much different. I created boards labeled by coarse that paralleled the binder categories I already created. And then I got to work. It has been a labor of love, and I'm not finished yet, but every few days I try to carve out an hour or two to get through the piles.

I must say that since I started this undertaking I have been referring to my boards on a daily basis, which is a major improvement from how I was utilizing the 3-ring binders. To me, this makes the project totally worth the major time investment. And I love that my followers can see what recipes I think look interesting—because at the end of the day, why should I "hoard" them all? (Hee hee.)

Of course with Pinterest being such a new phenomenon, I am not ready to throw the tear sheets out completely. I have filed them (by category, of course) in an accordion folder tucked in a cabinet far from my view. The goal is to never have to refer to them again, but what can I say? I like the security of knowing they are there, just in case.

 

Please advise—This ‘Spotlight On’ featuring Pinterest is based entirely on my personal opinion. I did not receive any compensation for this post and am fairly certain they have no idea who I am.

Around the Web

It's been Engagement Mania around here! Thank you, everyone, for the outpouring of love and support as we enter this exciting new time in our life. I'll be the first to admit I am having trouble concentrating on anything other than wedding stuff; thank goodness for female editors who are willing to tolerate my flaky behavior. While my social calendar has been filling up with parties and such, my professional calendar has been booking up, too.  I have lots of fun cooking and writing projects on my plate right now, so while it may seem quiet on Dixie Caviar, it has definitely not been quiet in my kitchen. Who needs a wedding diet, anyway?

In case you're jonesing for some new recipes, here's what I've been up to.

These peanut butter blossoms with espresso chocolate truffles are my spin on the classic. In fact, they may be my favorite recipe to date!

I've been craving a healthy go-to casserole recipe, and this chicken and swiss chard pasta bake definitely fits the bill. (My dirty little secret? I ate the ENTIRE pan by myself! Over a couple of days, of course.)

I pulled out one of my culinary school recipes on a particularly cold January day. This tarragon chicken fricassee is classic French comfort food.