web award?!?! awww shucks!

Oh man, you guys. What an exciting couple of weeks this has been for little 'ol me. You see, last week I won Best Food Blog in St. Louis, according to our local news/arts/entertainment paper, The Riverfront Times. While I certainly don't do this blog for fame and fortune, it made me so very very happy and giddy to win this. It's amazing to be recognized by your peers for something you love doing and put effort into. I love food. I love this blog and what it's brought into my life... fun, adventure, discovery and, mainly, friends.

That's right, as it says in the RFT write-up (which is super sweet, btw... I'm so flattered by it!), the thing that drives me most about blogging and social media is the sense of community I get, and all the new people I get to interact with. Some of my very best friends are in my life because of these here internets!


FBM reprezentin' at the Web Awards party

Obviously there's my awesome Food Blog Mafia ladies. Love them! 2 of them, Kelly and Kelli, were also nominated in the RFT web awards.... Kelli for Personal Blog and Kelly was my opponent in the Food Blog category. Annie was not nominated... for shame! She is seriously one of my heroes... smart, funny and generous. Also nominated in my Category were my good buddies Andrew Veety and Mike Sweeney. Andrew is the dude who gave birth to the Church of Burger, which I was honored to be a part of. Sweeney's contribution to St. Louis craft beer scene is legendary and very significant, with his blog STL Hops. Also in the Food Blog Category was Stephanie, who's restaurant review blog, Off The Eaten Path is relatively new. I actually got to meet Steph the night after the awards when Kelly and I went to dinner with some of the areas newest food bloggers.

Missing from the Food Blog category, strangely enough was Stef, who's blog Cupcake Project is a huge inspiration for me and has been for years. Stef and her husband Jonathan hosted one of the very first food blogger meet ups at their house years ago... one of the first times I really felt that warm sense of community. Stef's blog was nominated in the personal category, which I guess makes sense also, because it is fun to read the stories of her life that come through when she's going through the cupcake creation process.

I also have to give a shout out to my friends at the best music blog winning I Went To A Show. I go to a lot of the same shows as them (usually on their recommendations), and they are some friendly, fun, talented people who have phenomenal taste in music. Congrats, Jess, Annie, Dave and Julie!! Rock on.

Another shout out to one of my favorite people in the world, Eric Ketzer, who won a web award along with his team for the work they do for Charter communications. Charter gets a lot of flack for customer service, and it's Eric's job to fix that using social media. He's doing a great job, obviosuly.

I also should thank my employer, Schnucks, for whom I design point-of-sale signs and materials. In the past few years they have really been encouraging their employees to learn all they can about food and the food community. They put out a reading list of food books, offer free evening classes on cooking, wine, beer, etc. here at the office, and give out awards to those of us who strive to get educated. It is nice to know I have their support.


Photo By Jennifer Silverberg, Riverfront Times

So yeah, that's me in my kitchen. I live at my Mom's house, the house I grew up in. The kitchen could sure use an update. über brown and 70's. But, it's where I do most of my cooking, and the Jennifer, the extra nice photographer, insisted this would be the best place for a photo shoot. They turned out better than I expected. She's magical, that Jennifer. :)

Seriously, I cannot thank my friends, family and the RFT enough for this honor. There are so many bloggers/twitterers/chefs/cooks/writers/photographers in St. Louis that are so talented and inspirational. I can't list everyone... but if you are my friend... THANK YOU. :)

While I have my head all swollen... here are some other times when I've wanted to pee myself from excitement for being mentioned on some of my favorite blogs... Hand me my horn... time for some tooting! (I mean, I have some new readers now... a little history never hurt, right?)



Not Martha linked to my Pancetta Cups. I had been reading her blog for years when this happened. One of my first blogging inspirations! So this was a big deal to me. Plus, this is one of my favorite ever photos that I have taken for Iron Stef... eggs are pretty.



Serious Eats had my Beet Gnocchi as a Photo of the Day a few years ago. And just last week, The Cooking Channel's blog included these pink pretties in a round-up of beet recipes!




I have NEVER had so many hits as when my "Zucchini Baby" made it on to the legendary blog Boing Boing. Another all-time favorite site of mine.



The infamous meatloaf cupcakes. These were my first taste of what this blog could be. They got a mention on Emeril's blog, and since that day I have been smitten with blogging harder than I ever thought I could be.


Photo from riverfronttimes.com

Again, thanks to everyone who reads Iron Stef. You are my friends, and I appreciate you visiting!!