Best of the Food Web | Cooking With Michele®

October 17, 2009 | Best of the Food Web

Last weekend I introduced a new blog feature called Food for Thought – my opportunity to share with you ideas I have about the food world and stimulate your creativity around food. I plan to alternate that feature with this new feature called Best of the Food Web, where I’ll try to offer up a roundup of links I’ve recently come across online that I think are cool, useful, or simply delicious.

Table setting I liked from a summer cooking dinner party

For starters, don’t try to make any connection between the photos in this post and the content. Because it’s illegal and unethical to use other bloggers’ photos to highlight their post here, and because I just don’t have the bandwidth to go asking for permission from everyone, I’ll just stick in some photos I have on hand to break up the text.

Fall harvest from Monroe Farms

So without any further delay, here are some of my favorite recent recipe posts from other foodies:

Gorgeous photos and recipe for the spookiest looking candied apples for Halloween from Matt Bites
A spicy vegetarian chili from Elise at Simply Recipes – this probably appeals to me because I’m a judge for a neighborhood chili cook-off this afternoon (along with Claudine Pepin (Jacques’ daughter) and Nicola Frost (Food Network producer)
Roasted garlic and new potatoes from Ree at The Pioneer Woman – you can either mix the roasted garlic in with the potatoes or use it as a decadent spread on toast
Roasted butternut squash with Gorgonzola and fried sage from Kevin at Closet Cooking – part of his Canadian Thanksgiving roundup that I simply must try
Jalapeno cheddar scones from Deb at Smitten Kitchen – you know I’m not really a baker, but I am definitely making these – maybe as a gift for my friend who is going to have surgery Bouquet garni – herbs and spices in cheesecloth to flavor soups and stews

Besides recipes online, there are all sorts of other useful and/or interesting things out there if you have the time to search for them – fortunately for you readers, I spend time doing that and here are a couple worth mentioning:

Still Tasty – Your Ultimate Shelf Life Guide – Save Money, Eat Better, Help The Environment – this great site is jam packed with everything you’ve ever wanted to know about how long things last and how to store them correctly.
Chow has a running list of The Perfect… - things like the perfect fried chicken, or the perfect pesto, or the perfect martini
Mark Bittman from the NY Times makes the point that the fact that fast food is fast isn’t what makes it bad
Open Table is an online reservation system that has tons of restaurants listed for cities like Denver and I’m always surprised more people don’t know about it – you get “dining dollars” for using it, it’s fast, and it’s free

Have a great weekend!