Edmonton Food Blogger Meet-up!

Thanks to everyone who came out (20 blogs were represented), and to The Common for hosting! You can check out tweets and photos from the evening using the hashtag #yegfoodblogs

________________________________________

A couple years ago Maki and I decided it was time to start planning the next Edmonton food blogger meet up. Here we are in 2014, actually doing it.

Are you a food or drink blogger in this fair city? Do you read your fellow bloggers' blogs or pass by them at events, but haven't actually met them or been able to chat? Now's your chance!

The Common

{9910 109 Street}

Tuesday, March 4th

6-9PM

The Common has provided the use of their south room for the evening (thank you, thank you!) so we can easily mingle, and come and go as needed (**). Come for drinks, a snack, dinner - It's your choice - Just make sure you come! And please help us spread the word!

In order to firm up numbers for the restaurant reservation, please let us know if you are able to attend, and if you will be bringing a plus one. We would also like to keep a running list of attendees so that we can get to know you and your blog before we meet you. Here's what we need...

Your name, blog link and number of people attending

in email to

Marianne: loosenyourbeltblog {at} gmail {dot} com AND/OR Maki: oomelement {at} gmail {dot} com

**The Common will be taking orders from the regular food and drink menu, so there will be no shortage of options. You are responsible for paying for your own food and drink, peeps! They will be charging an automatic 18% gratuity on orders. Must be 18+ to attend.

YEG Food/Drink Bloggers in Attendance

{Updated March 4th}

Maki - In My Element

Marianne - Loosen Your Belt

Phil - Baconhound

Andrea - Little Miss Andrea

Diane - What Would Argenplath Pay?

Linda - Linda Hoang dot com
Brittney - Gastropost Edmonton
Liv - Dine and Write
Cindy - Let's Om Nom
Shannon - Whole, Fresh, Delicious
Cathy - Walsh Cooks
Jacquie - Parkallen Home Kitchen
Sharman - Passion For Pork
Jackie & Steph - Meat Vs Veg Edmonton
Caroline - CarolineYEG
Carla - YEG Food Club
Lindsay - Will Cook For Cocktails
Sharon - Only Here for the Food
Evonne - Undercover Gourmet
Lillian - Beyond Umami
Michelle - The Tiffin Box
Salma - Green Onion Cakes
Karlynn - The Kitchen Magpie
Lindsay - The Edible Woman
Eva - Mr. Moo's Adventures

 Catch them at the next one!
Isabelle - The Little Red Kitchen
Elyse - Life Without Lemons
Kevin - Kevin Kossowan
Chris - Eating is the Hard Part
Robyn - Life is Better Red
Courtenay - Messy Little Cook
Jason - On Beer.org

We'll update these lists regularly as emails come in. Looking forward to meeting you!

Three

Well, here we are three years later, and this little project is still happening (although posts have been admittedly sparse lately do to a diet consisting mostly of chocolate...). I don't have anything new to add or to reflect on this year vs. last, however, since so many of my posts have been related to school, I thought I'd post this picture:

Photo by Maki B.

Thanks to everyone out there for reading (and for your support through school - this side project made that experience so much better). Here's to another year.

Two

Well, this blog is two years old today. Two years ago I had taken the semester off school, we were renovating our apartment like mad people and just beginning to discover some of the spots around Edmonton that we now love and return to regularly.

This has been an incredibly fun project and looking back, I understand my friend's Mom's comment - "How do you two not weigh a ton?" All I can say to that is that we didn't choose the name 'Loosen Your Belt' for nothing. But seriously, these entries contain a whole bunch of memories that I'm glad to have documented through food.

Can't wait to see where we're at in another two years. Cheers, and thanks for reading!

BTW, has anyone perused the 'Return of the Magic' displays on Whyte? I'm doing a presentation on them for school this week - 'The Shop Window as an Image'. The display at Coney Island Candy (10345 82 Avenue) is by far my favourite, closely followed by The Nutcracker display at Gordon Price Music, which is Charles' favourite (10828 82 Avenue).

Jar out...

Into the filler...

And full! I stood staring at this for a good ten minutes... thankfully it was a warm day.

Ice Cream and other things

We bought the ice cream attachment for our mixer back in July, but with our fridge breaking down twice within the week we bought it, my attempts to make ice cream were thwarted. But last week I finally gave up my superstition that the fridge broke because I wanted to make ice cream (plus we got a new timer put in), and I eventually settled on David Lebovitz' Mexican Chocolate ice cream from Ready For Dessert for the first batch.

This attempt turned out to be fantastic, and this was certainly the smoothest, richest and most decadent ice cream either of us had ever tried. The cinnamon provided the perfect warmth as did the little bit of cayenne I decided to add at the end. And both spices complemented the chocolates that I ended up using - a Venezuelan and a Madagascar, both from Valrhona. We've almost cleaned out the container, so hopefully I can find some time to whip up a new batch for the upcoming week.

Speaking of time, I'm pretty overwhelmed right now - school is crazy. It's my last year I'm pushing as hard as I can to finish for June. Unlike last semester where I had the Anthro of Food class to throw myself into with some more general classes on the side, this Fall is proving to be more specific and more difficult - Lower Palaeolithic Prehistory, Medical Anthro, Reading Class and Ideology, Linguistic Anthro, and finally, the most abstract, fun and challenging one - Imagining Society: Places, Things and Stories... what is the social imaginary? Can it be defined? How do we get at it? How do we interact with place? How do we sense it? What is sense? What is feeling? Is it tangible?...

All these things are swimming around in my head, and I've had by nose stuck in books and articles non-stop for the past couple weeks. All this is a round about way of saying posts will be few and far between this year, and I'm thinking of stopping the blog all together for a while. I 'feel' like it needs a new direction... maybe it will come to me in Lower Palaeolithic class as we discuss the most recent Acheulean hand axe find - you never know.

But before the possible break, I still have two posts left from Québec (I know...): Panache and our final lunch at L'Échaudé. Also, we made it to MRKT last Friday for dinner, so a post is in the works for that too. Then I'll see where I'm at.

Anyhow, I wanted to mention that we made it to Symphony Under the Sky again this year. As per usual, it was the perfect way to end the Festival season, and it's always nice to head out and be a patron - no responsibilities but to enjoy the show. Also, last Fat Franks and Mini Donuts of the year.

I still go for the veggie with dijon and regular mustard, sauerkraut and pickles; Charles is Italian or Honey Ham with mustard, pickles and hot peppers