Full Gastronomic Tilt

At first, back when I thought it was going to be a 10-day hiatus or so, I resolved not to mention my absence from the blogosphere. Then it stretched into a month, then two. Now it’s August. Right.

I’m here. It has been ungodly hot and I’ve been living off of raw vegetables, stone fruits, quesadillas, deli sandwiches, pasta, water, hummus and beer. I think I’ve eaten my weight in stone fruits alone (peaches, plums, nectarines, cherries) this past month.

Really. Hardly foodie-grade stuff. No foie gras or truffle butter or $300 bottles of wine. One exciting bit of news is that one of my photos was featured as Food Porn on the Internet Food Association, here. It was a nice surprise! In an attempt to improve my photography and get some feedback, I took a friend’s advice and joined a few Flickr groups.

As far as being in keyboard absentia, I’m not the only one. Omnomicon has checked out for most of this summer, as has Orangette. Then again, one of them is getting married and the other is opening a restaurant with her husband, so I guess they get a free pass. A Mingling of Tastes moved across the country and is still getting settled, but Eat a Beet has completely vanished.

Of course, there are some awesome bloggers slogging through the summer slump and putting out new, delicious content. Accidental Hedonist, Closet Cooking, Ezra Pound Cake and Herbivoracious are all delivering the yummy. Locally, our own Hendersonville Epicurean keeps us posted on an array of foodie events (and we love her for it).

Earlier in the summer, a flurry of food bloggers descended on Asheville for a long weekend. It was neat to read some outside perspectives on many of the local foodie things I take for granted, like Spinning Spider chevre. Mmmm. Tartelette, White on Rice Couple and Humble Gourmand sung the praises of our fair city and the food gems to be found within. Go take a look and build up an appetite.

I haven’t completely quit cooking, but the dishes I’ve made are ones I do not recommend attempting in the middle of summer. Especially when your apartment (like mine) is not air-conditioned. Chalk it up to stubborness. Sometimes, I get an idea in my head and have to make it rightthissecond, no matter how impractical. Which is how I ended up roasting a whole chicken and making stock from the carcass in August, accomplishing two goals I set for myself a while back. And damn if I didn’t make risotto with the stock yesterday afternoon. Yum.

After the terrific zucchini bread I attempted to make mini peach bundt cakes with a honey cream cheese frosting. Baking FAIL. The adapted recipe (Paula Deen’s Hummingbird Cake served as inspiration) came out too dense and chewy and possibly not cooked all the way through.

Pretty pictures, though:

Once school starts back up I’ll have more of a set schedule and will likely be posting more. Odd, I know. The busier I am the easier it is to keep myself on task.

P.S. I’ve sung the praises of fresh, local eggs before, but here’s a visual reminder:

The two large, sunny yellow yolks at the bottom are from Bill’s lovely eggs. The yolk at the top is from an Earth Fare egg. Interesting, yes?