First up: Blackberry Farm near Knoxville, a celebration of locally-produced food, where the hubby, our friends, Jim and Katie, and I ate an enormous amount of Benton’s bacon, gorgeous tomatoes and other fresh produce grown on-site, and as you likely guessed, the best BLT I’ve ever sunk my teeth into. For you, our time in pictures…

The barn, where we indulged in many dinners and bourbons

The garden where the produce begins

What's the chicken thinkin'? Will my eggs be breakfast or will I be brunch?

Beautiful beans

John, Master Gardener, picking chard for our next meal

Volunteer sunflowers in the Volunteer State

Oregano and bachelor's buttons, whose petals will be tweezed for garnish

Serious tools for serious meals

Charming, unique and lovely

Guacamole makings

I’ve been reflecting a lot on the Food Blogger Camp I attended at the lovely Grand Velas Riviera Maya in Mexico last week. I’ve been connecting with the new friends I made and remembering the generously candid stories everyone told. And then I realized that the biggest lessons I learned from Food Blogger Camp (aside from the fact that I still really like tequila) weren’t about blogging.

Well, of course, they all apply to blogging. And, I do have pages and pages of notes on the technical and strategic aspects of blogging and food photography. But, to be honest with you, the three biggest things I took away from Food Blogger Camp apply just as well to any other vocation or avocation.

Beautiful Mayan light

LESSON 1: KNOW, AT YOUR CORE, WHO YOU ARE.

I was intrigued by how many people had come seeking direction for their blogs (myself included). And I was equally struck by those who had figured it out; they exuded a sense of conviction about the path they’d chosen. They know that they’re meeting a need that they, uniquely, can fill. For instance, some know they want to be useful or entertaining to their readers; some know they want to delight viewers with their food images; still others know they want to publish cookbooks and were using their blogs as platforms.

In other words, these folks are operating with a sense of purpose derived from knowing, at their core, who they are and what they stand for.

“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength, mastering yourself is true power.” — Lao Tzu

Diane of White on Rice Couple teaching

LESSON 2: DO WHAT BRINGS YOU JOY.

My grandpa always told me to do what I loved and the rest would follow. Sometimes, that sounds easier said than done. But it seemed true at Food Blogger Camp. A number of people had found joy in writing about or photographing food and, as a result, had truly changed their lives. They halted the stress of working in kitchens or in tech to build blogs that became their businesses; they discovered new passions and worked (and are working) their butts off to build those passions into careers; they overcame seemingly insurmountable health problems through better food and are fired up to teach others how to do the same.

“You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal; instead pursue the things you love doing. Then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you.” – Maya Angelou

Elise Bauer & David Lebovitz. And me, drinking tequila*

LESSON 3: BE A GOOD CITIZEN.

I was humbled by how openly my fellow bloggers taught, shared and inspired; in short, they modeled what it is to be good citizens and build community. Diane Cu of White On Rice Couple patiently taught me, shot by shot, how to adjust my shutter speed and aperture to capture this image just the way I wanted it…

The cherry shot

…and then came up to me at lunch afterward to offer more help. Her partner, Todd Porter, geeked out with me about citrus trees and growing our own food. Carrie Vitt of Deliciously Organic schooled me on how to replace white flour and sugar with more wholesome alternatives without making it feel like a lesson (being on the beach didn’t hurt!). Robin Cherry, Elana Horwich, Diana Johnson and Susan Salzman encouraged me to combine my passions for sustainable food and education, and Nancy Singleton Hachisu — after inspiring me with her life stories — is helping me do just that. Elise Bauer of Simply Recipes somehow read me in an instant, offering this motivation:

“The only limit to what you can do is your own creativity.”

David Lebovitz shooting Elise Bauer

Thank you to Kerrygold Butter for sponsoring, and to the session leaders (Matt Armendariz, Elise Bauer, Diane Cu, Jaden Hair, David Lebovitz, Adam Pearson and Todd Porter) and the other participants for a life-changing experience!

Salsas!

············

*Thanks to Carrie Vitt of Deliciously Organic for this photo. I’m glad somebody snapped me with one of my favorite drinks in hand!

Here’s a round-up of other participants’ posts:

• Food Blog Camp 2011: The Whole Enchilada (Acorns and Apples)
• Playa del Carmen, Mexico: Food Blog Camp 2010 (Adventures of an Amateur Foodie)
• Chefs Who Play With Fire and Healing Through Food & Friendship at Food Blog Camp (Awake At The Whisk) — **second post is a beautifully written, poignant dedication to the blogger’s lifelong friend; worth a read
• Oh! Mexico and Mexico Camp Part II: Chicken Chilaquiles Recipe (Bake Cupcakes)
• What I learned…Food Blogger Camp 2011 (A Communal Table)
• Food Blog Camp: Seeing the Light and The Greatest Job in the World (Confections of a Foodie Bride)
• Food Blog Camp: Hello from Mexico! (Daily Nibbles)
• Food Blog Camp Re-Cap (Deliciously Organic)
• Food Blogger Camp 2011 Grand Velas: Top Ten Things I Learned (Dianasaur Dishes)
• Food Blogger Camp Riviera Maya (Family Fresh Cooking)
• 10 Lessons Learned from Food Blog Camp 2011 (Food Woolf) — **this one gives a GREAT overview of blogging-specific lessons
• If You’re Happy and You Know it, Eat Foie Gras and Looking Back at Food Blog Camp, 2011 (FRANtastic Food) — **if you ever went to summer camp, read the first post; hilarious
• Food Blog Camp! ¡Hola! México! Part Uno (Kitchen Conundrum)
• Food Blogger Camp 2011 (Kitchen Corners)
• Food Blog Camp 2011 (Ladles and Jellyspoons)
• Food Blog Camp 2011 (Mommie Cooks!)
• Wordless Wednesday: My Kind of Camping Trip (Pinch My Salt)
• Food Blogger Camp: Molecular Gastronomy Demonstration, Food Blogger Camp Overview and When Ego Goes to Camp (The Recipe Renovator)
• Margaritas & Food Blog Camp (Sally Cameron)
• Hola from Riviera Maya (SaVUry and Sweet)
• Escape From Grand Velas (Undercover Caterer)
• Community Across the Globe: Food Blog Camp 2011 (The Urban Baker)
• Food Blog Camp-Cancun (What’s Gaby Cooking?)

Session leaders’ posts / blogs:

• Food Blogger Camp (David Lebovitz)
• Food Blog Camp 2011 in Mexico, including Pool Time! Video (Matt Bites)
• Adam Pearson, food stylist
• Simply Recipes by Elise Bauer
• Food Blog Camp 2011 (Steamy Kitchen)
• Food Blog Camp 2011 & Dancing Video (White On Rice Couple)

Food Blogger Camp photos:

• Food Blogger Camp Photos (Flickr)

Organizer and P.R. contact:

• Prose & Co. by Kate Moeller

A standout moment in Lanai

In December, 60 Minutes did a piece on the six people identified so far who have autobiographical memories. These are people who can recall every single moment of their lives, eventful or mundane: the day they had to switch from a beloved to a new school at the age of 13, including reliving the emotions experienced that day; what they did the day they broke up with a girlfriend 15 years ago; what the weather was like on May 3, 1975; or the score of the Redskins-Steelers game on November 10, 1991.

The piece discussed whether this endless memory was a gift or a curse. But in the end, one of the six said:

“…Sure, there are times when it’s difficult. But I feel like it makes me live my life with so much more intention and so much more joy. Because I know that I’m gonna remember whatever happens today, it’s like, all right, what can I do to make today significant? What can I do that is gonna make today stand out?”

Now is a popular time for folks to make New Year’s resolutions, to set personal and professional goals for the coming year or to update their bucket lists. In the last few days of 2010, I reflected on what I’d wanted to do that year, noted what I actually did and updated my bucket list.

But after reading this 60 Minutes piece, I realized something. Life isn’t just about grinding through goals or a list of activities. And you never know what life is going to throw at you.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t continue to set goals or update your bucket list; I certainly have specific things I want to learn and do in 2011 (which I’ve shared below).

But what I am saying is that setting the goals and updating the lists don’t mean anything if you’re not living the life you want every day. And I’ve come to believe over the past year that “every day” is a crucial part of that sentence. It’s not that we all have to accomplish something prize-worthy on a daily basis. Rather, it’s realizing that what we have is this life, and making it count means making every day count, even if — or maybe, especially if — it’s because of one, small moment.

So instead of making New Year’s resolutions, setting specific goals for myself or seeing my list as the only things I need to do to feel satisfied about 2011, here’s what I’m committing to:

I commit to experiencing appreciating a standout moment, every day.

It hit me when writing the statement that “experiencing” wasn’t enough. The point of this commitment is to:

• Be attuned to what makes me happy and passionate so I can create those moments
• Be present enough to see and feel those moments each day
• Then take them in and be grateful for what they’ve added to my life

These moments could be anything, and they could be good or bad: noticing the beauty of the sun illuminating leaves in the garden; getting the plum jam completely wrong — but then just right; learning something for the first time and allowing the delight and frustration that come along with that.

Of course, as I mentioned above, there are specific things I want to learn and do in 2011. I’m guessing these will provide lots of standout moments for me this year! To keep myself accountable and give you a preview of some of the things you’ll likely read about on this blog, here’s the list. Most are related to homegrown, homemade food, but I’m sharing the others too:

HOMEGROWN / HOMEMADE FOOD STUFF

• See how much produce I can grow vs. have to buy
• Learn to butcher a hog
• Learn to make various Japanese and American pickles to carry on old recipes
• Learn my grandma’s Indonesian recipes before it’s too late
• Make my own bacon
• Make egg nog from scratch
• Get better at canning
• Get better at jam-making
• Become proficient at making homemade cheese
• Build a small repertoire of holiday sweets that keep various traditions alive
• Visit two to three organic farms/vineyards/orchards to learn what it takes to run them
• Practice shooting guns (because one day, I’d like to hunt my own food, at least once)
• Grow more dahlias to have around the garden and house (okay, this isn’t food, but it’s nice to have the colorful inspiration while one cooks!)

Summer dahlias

TRAVEL

• See wildlife in the snow in Yellowstone
• Eat my way through and take another cooking class in Italy
• Taste locally-made wine or spirits where they’re crafted in a place I’ve never been (e.g., Oregon wine country; bourbon in Kentucky)

CREATIVE & PHYSICAL

• Improve my photography
• Be able to easily play at least two fun songs on the piano, anywhere, anytime
• Rock climb (inside on a climbing wall) at least once, to see if I can manage my fear of heights

What can you do to create standout moments for yourself this year?

············

Click here for the 60 Minutes story on autobiographical memory; it’s quite a piece.

Thanks to David Romanelli for sharing the 60 Minutes piece and helping to inspire this post. You can find out more about David’s yoga and chocolate classes here.

Osechi ryori

In Japan, New Year’s is what Christmas is to many in the U.S. and vice versa. People in Japan party on Christmas. But New Year’s in Japan is a national holiday; many businesses and agencies are closed for days at the start of the year. On New Year’s Eve, Buddhist temples literally ring in the new year, sounding bells 108 times to get rid of the 108 human sins; families then eat soba noodles, symbolizing crossing into the new year and a long life ahead. Historically, women would clean house the week prior (symbolizing a fresh start) and cook a number of dishes, collectively called osechi ryori, in the days leading up to New Year’s (as it was taboo to cook on the first three days of the year).

Traditionally, the foods were cooked in sugar or vinegar or dried so that they could keep without refrigeration. While most families today don’t invest the intensive time to cook osechi, opting instead to buy beautifully-arranged food boxes from department stores or even the local 7-Eleven, the dishes and their flavors have marched forward into modern day.

Although we don’t go to Buddhist temple or clean and cook for days, the Japanese American side of my family eats together every New Year’s Day at my grandparents’. As many of us with immigrant histories do, we combine Japanese and American food traditions to create our own that we’ve maintained for years.

We eat about half of the myriad foods you’d find on the New Year’s table in Japan. We always start lunch with ozoni, a fish-based, clear broth decorated with seaweed, thinly-sliced shiitake, scallions and white fish cakes. In the soup goes the all-important mochi (sticky rice cake), which is toasted in the oven first.

Ozoni with mochi

Then we follow with a variety of small dishes: kamaboko, a fish cake sliced into half-circles; the shape and colors are reminiscent of Japan’s rising sun and are meant to symbolize festivity and celebration…

Kamaboko slices

…and kuromame, black soybeans stewed in sugar and soy sauce, symbolizing the ability to work in good health (mame, the Japanese word for “bean”, also means “working like a bee”). It’s traditional to simmer kuromame in an iron pot or add rusty nails to blacken the color of the beans. Not sure how I feel about that nail method. So perhaps I should feel glad that my grandma simply buys a can of prepared kuromame, which are mixed with konbu seaweed and kuri, sweet chestnuts, both also traditional New Year’s foods. Konbu is associated with the word yorokobu, meaning “joy”, and kuri’s golden color symbolizes prosperity.

Kuromame with konbu and kuri

To this menu, we’ve added foods that aren’t traditional for New Year’s but are ones we like to eat. There’s sashimi with wasabi and grated daikon radish, always perched daintily on my grandma’s elegantly-curved dishes and anointed with a splash of soy sauce from the glass bottle she’s had for decades.

Sashimi serving

There are also (clockwise from 2 o’clock): inari sushi (rice jacketed in fried tofu); steamed green beans with ponzu sauce; seaweed salad; steamed rice with tsukemono, or Japanese pickles; a sweet egg omelet (on New Year’s, traditionally made with fish paste, but ours are plain egg); and in the center, oden, a Japanese stew of vegetables and konnyaku, a firm jelly made from a plant called devil’s tongue.

Lunch plate

In the afternoon, we catch up on each other’s lives. Often, we play games, which is a Japanese New Year’s tradition, though the games themselves — pool, Catch Phrase — are not. It’s not unusual that someone nods off for a quick nap digesting that big lunch. And that’s a good thing, because come six o’clock, it’s time to eat again!

Dinner is decidedly more American, though it still retains a Japanese flair. We’ll eat whatever’s left from lunch, mixing seaweed salad and kamaboko with baked ham, my aunt’s decadent au gratin potatoes, and cake and ice cream for dessert. The next morning, we get to eat leftover mochi, toasted in the toaster oven or microwave, dipped in soy sauce and sugar — one of my favorite treats.

Sleepy from the good food, the stories we’ve told and heard and the laughs we’ve shared, we all go to our respective homes, happy to have eaten another year’s traditions together. Happy New Year to you too!

············

If you’d like to see a full list and stunning photographs of homemade, traditional osechi ryori, check out the post at the No Recipes blog here.

Christmas table

Well, I thought I’d be able to post during the holidays. Before we flew out east and then to the midwest, I even had a few blog drafts queued up, ready to round out and spiffy up with photographs and share with you all. But, I’m finding that amidst…

…navigating eight airports in two and a half weeks to visit family and friends and attend Food Blogger Camp in Mexico (more on that here; I’ll definitely share my experience in January)

…sharpening my shooting skills (more on that soon)

…enjoying countless delicious homemade and local treats, from a full turkey dinner on Christmas…

Table set for Christmas dinner

…to heaps of holiday sweets, to an authentic Maryland crab cake to, coming up soon, a traditional Japanese meal with my family in Chicago on New Year’s

Pineapple tarts, my in-laws' Christmas tradition

…and spending lots of great time with loved ones, finding time to sit down at the computer long enough to draft blog posts is a bit tricky.

So, Together In Food will be on a brief hiatus until next week, at which point I’ll be back online to share my homegrown and homemade food (and Food Blogger Camp) adventures with you. In the meantime, thanks again for following my blog and tweets here, and all the best wishes for a renewing, fun and happy New Year!

I wanted to say THANK YOU to all of you who’ve been loyally following my blog! I love that there’s a group of folks out there — some I’ve known for years, others I’ve recently met, and still others I know only through the online worlds of the blogosphere and Twitterverse — reading about my husband’s and my efforts to build a homegrown, homemade and happy life.

THANK YOU again for:

• Reading
• Sharing your thoughtful, touching, informative and funny comments
• Promoting my blog to others you think would like or benefit from it

Wishing you a wonderful holiday season, filled with connections with loved ones, relaxation and rejuvenation, and of course, lots of good, homemade food!

My first memory of gingerbread: eating brunch in the West Village when we lived in New York City. I don’t remember what else we ate or the name of the spot, but I remember the setting. A red rooster painted on the steamy window greeted us as we walked in from the snowy cold to meet two friends. A crush of people were smashed together at tiny tables, giving us that sensation of eating in intimate proximity with strangers that’s so familiar in Manhattan. At 2:00 p.m., hunger rumbled in the belly I hadn’t fed since 9:30 the night before.

Someone suggested ordering the gingerbread appetizer to share. The waitress placed a blunt white plate on the table, covered almost entirely with a thick, fresh-from-the-oven slice of gingerbread. The scent of its spices wafted into our nostrils. It was deeply hued, festooned with a lopsided cap of whipped cream. A moist, cakey inside was enveloped in a faintly crispy crust. That first bite turned me into a gingerbread lover.

I made my first gingerbread three years ago. As you may have read about in my last post here about my relationship with baking, that first gingerbread came out a bit burned. Since then, I’ve tried other recipes and taken full advantage of my oven thermometer to regulate heat. Baking our own gingerbread has become a nascent holiday tradition, something I make every December before we join the traveling hordes flying to relatives’ for Christmas.

Following is the recipe my husband and I like best so far. Enjoy!

············

SPICY GINGERBREAD

adapted from the Joy of Cooking recipe

Yields: 1 9-inch round cake or 2 loaves

Planning Notes: You can make this a day in advance of serving and keep, covered tightly, on the counter.

Your gingerbread ingredients

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons dried ground ginger

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon allspice

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup hot water

1/4 cup dark molasses (such as blackstrap)

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled

1 large egg

1/2 cup sugar

4 tablespoons finely chopped crystallized ginger

Cooking Instructions

1 — Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line bottom of baking pan(s) with parchment paper.

2 — Sift the flour into a large bowl. Add the soda, ginger, cinnamon, allspice and salt and whisk together thoroughly.

Your dry ingredients

3 — Put the hot water in a small bowl or 2-cup glass measuring cup. Add molasses, maple syrup and honey and whisk together thoroughly.

Your liquid ingredients

4 — Put butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk on low speed until butter and sugar are combined.

5 — Break egg into small bowl; make sure the egg is good and there aren’t any shell shards. Slip the egg into the stand mixer bowl; whisk on low speed until combined with butter and sugar.

6 — Add half of dry ingredients to stand mixer bowl. Whisk on low speed until flour is incorporated, then whisk on medium speed to fully combine.

7 — Add half of water-molasses-syrup-honey liquid to stand mixer bowl. Whisk on low speed until incorporated, then whisk on medium speed to fully combine.

8 — Repeat steps 5 and 6 with remaining dry ingredients then liquid.

9 — Remove bowl from stand mixer. Stir in chopped ginger with a rubber spatula (which you can use to scrape the batter out of the bowl into the pan).

Your chopped crystallized ginger

10 — Pour batter (which will be fairly thin and may have some bubbles — don’t worry about it) into prepared pan(s). Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. If you’re using 1 9-inch round pan, it’ll take about 45 minutes (may take up to an hour). If you’re using 2 loaf pans, it’ll take about 35 minutes (may take up to 45). Cool 10 minutes in the pan on top of a rack before digging in!

Your batter ready to be baked

Serving Notes

Serve warm, dusted with powdered sugar or capped with a dollop of fresh whipped cream.

Your gingerbread dusted with powdered sugar

Notes on the Recipe

We like a spicy cake and love the bits of crystallized ginger. If you want a milder cake, cut the amount of ginger, cinnamon and allspice in half. If you don’t like spicy, chewy bits of ginger in your cake, you can omit those.

The type of honey you use will affect the flavor. If you want neutral sweetness, stick to a plain clover honey. If you like a stronger, more complex honey, by all means, use it.

Finally, you don’t need to use a stand mixer; it’s just easier and faster. If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can use a hand mixer or a plain old whisk and bowl.