Some of my favorite non-food bloggers on food

Every now and then I find some of the best posts on food by non-food bloggers. Recently I have been slacking due to the flu and have found a couple of great posts regarding food, food companies and becoming food professionals. My two favorites I've listed below:
The first is by my very favorite web writer. Tony Woodlief authors a blog called Sand In the Gears. I have been reading Tony's blog for about two years now and have read the archives all the way through. He has an amazing ability to capture and retell the stories of home so well. I live through my own childhood and that of my children's while reading his blog. However, I read the post I linked to in December. it made me laugh out loud. I love his take on the Swiss Miss pudding cup fiasco and he also has one to the Frito Lay company a little later in the month. If you need a good laugh, Tony is your guy.

Second, is the blog of one incredible person. Superhero journal is the blog of Andrea Scher. Most of you are probably familiar with her blog and love going there as much as I do. What I like about her is the way she is able to see with different eyes and point out to all of us the wonder of the world we live in. She posts great photos everyday and the photos alone are enough to make you want to grab a camera and see what you haven't seen. Recently she had posted this picture and story. It helps to remind us that we all work hard and mess up and work hard some more. That even talent takes work and incredible things happen when we try try again.

Tony and Andrea are two of my favorite non-food bloggers!

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I'm a different kind of food blogger

Most food blogs you visit always have a nice picture or a recipe of something they've recently cooked or eaten at a restaurant. I find myself half way through preparation, and then think oops, should've grabbed my camera. Or, if I'm eating out, the light isn't right or I've already eaten the best part.

To tell you the truth, I don't think it's the picture. It's the passion. I love food. Most food bloggers love food. But I come at it from a different angle. I like origins. It's why I began in the business those oh so many years ago. At 15 and a half. My first job: fast food. It was exhilarating, it was humiliating. Exhilarating because I got a job for the first time ever. It gave me independence. It also came at a price. When all the kids were at the football game on Friday night, I was slinging tacos. Then when the game was over, they'd come in and I'd have to take orders and feed them. It was humiliating at times. I didn't last in fast food long.

I quickly accepted a job at a photo shop down the street. Mr. Holt introduced me to the best optics available. With my very first tax return I bought the best camera money could buy. An Olympus OM-1. I still own that camera. It has taken many, many pictures. Not many of food.

I didn't last long at the photo shop. Mr. Holt retired and so did his business. I was again without employ. I wrote about the next job I landed in one of my very first posts here. It was for a big box grocery company. It has now been assimiliated through acquisition after acquisition. However, food became an obsession of mine.

I even married a farmer's son. We began dating in high school. I remember being at their home during lunch hour in the summertime. His dad would come in from the field dirty and worn looking. He'd laugh at my then boyfriend and tell him he wouldn't last a half a day working with him. It was true. The man was a worker. A hard worker. He grew the best melons and tomatoes I've ever had the pleasure to enjoy.

He introduced me to farming. Tractors, combines, drying sheds, sulphur. We lived in a farm community. We still do. People laugh when I tell them where I live. I ask them why and the explanation is always the silliest to me. "It stinks there". I tell them it keeps the riff raff away. And the smell to me, is the smell of money. Dairy farmers used to be on three sides of the valley, now just two. And they will disappear from the landscape soon, I'm sure.

Before the farmer's son, I had a crush on another farmer's son. He was the smartest guy I knew. He went to the rival high school in the valley. His dad had about 2000 acres of apricots. I pitted apricots at his dad's farm to earn camp money two summers in a row when I was younger. He was so cute back then, and we're still friends today. In fact when we needed a new driveway a couple of years ago, he did the cement work.

So what I'm trying to say is food began to be all around me. Farming, grocery, as a brokers seeling stock talking about food companies, and finally managing a food production facility. Where does it all grow, how is it all packed, who does all that work? That's what interests me. In the next few months that's where the focus will go with this blog. I'll still talk about recipes and favorite places I eat, but there will also be more emphasis on the stuff I love about food.

Come along, share the journey, add comments as you please.

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News Flash

Whole Foods is replacing MBNA on the S&P 500 list beginning January 1st!

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Just in case you haven't heard

The news on Albertson's. They have decided that they are no longer for sale. They will be revamping their operations and getting rid of underperforming assets. Albertson's will be focusing on their core business and improving the company from within.

Good for them! (now if they'll just kick the manager in my town's store in the butt and make him clean up his store!)

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Merry Christmas

Tree
Originally uploaded by foodchronicles.

Hreed's wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas. Thank you for your support this year!

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Presents for me!

Presents for me!
Originally uploaded by foodchronicles.

I rarely ask for persents. It makes me feel weird. "what do you want?" Well, what i really want is a trip to Ireland for four weeks, but that ain't happening so really nothing is usually my response.

I do keep a wish list at Amazon, just so I can remember all the cookbooks I want to purchase. I am severely lacking in the retention mode as far as book titles and Amazon helps keep me informed, thus the list.

So the big guy went to look at my list and got me this book. It is really nice! I always say used is good on my list just in case someone wants to buy me something they never have to pay full price. It also is a good way to know what recipes are good, if the pages are dog eared and all. This book was listed as used, but it evidently was a gift for someone who didn't want it or some other reason. It had never been opened! It's a great book, I will spend a lot of time with in the future.

The second wonderful gift pictured was from my great sister s'mee! She made this plate for me because she knows my love for all things chocolate. She hand painted all the chocolates and they look very much like the real thing! They even have ridges and swirls like the real thing.

Her best statement about the plate was that her grandson, was upset because the chocolates weren't real. He didn't find the illusion to his liking at all.

Wonderful unexpected gifts. They're the best kind!

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Light Blogging

Blogging has been and will continue to be light through the 28th or so. I have a few pics I will post, not food related, however, in keeping with the season.

See you soon!

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