It has been a while since our last installment of The Finest Foodies Friday. But now that I am back from all the hub bub and settling in to what qualifies as a “normal” life here in the Leftover Queen household, it is time to get back to our regularly scheduled programs here on The Leftover Queen.

For those of you not familiar with the Finest Foodies Friday, we have it every Friday (Duh!), and it is where we showcase favorite blogs from
The Foodie Blogroll. It is a way to share and discover all the wealth of food information we have at our fingertips with The Foodie Blogroll, the fastest growing blogroll for food bloggers. The only requirement to be featured in an installment of FFF is to be a member of The Foodie Blogroll. If you are not yet a member, but you have a food blog and would like to join, please click here, to join in on the fun.If you have a favorite foodblog on The Foodie Blogroll, that you would like to be featured here, please join us over on The Forum, and post your favorite Foodie Blogroll foodblogs here.
Many weeks we pick from the list, and other weeks we just wing it!

This week I would like to showcase some new and some old favorites of mine.

First some of my old favorites:

Let’s start with Katie from Thyme For Cooking
I always love Katie’s blog because she has a great sense of humor. She lives in the South of France, but has also lived in Spain, and she has some great stories to tell about her various adopted homelands. I always learn something new when I visit Katie’s blog and I always leave with a smile on my face. She also has a tantalizing weekly menu plan, often featuring items from her vast garden, that is sure to give you some great ideas for your week!

Then there is Pixie from You Say Tomato…I Say Tomato
Pixie is a very spunky chica who is also a big fan of food of the Mediterranean. She loves exploring new dishes (lots of time other bloggers’ recipes) and trying them out in her kitchen in the UK. Her family is from Malta and she often shares some delicious Maltese dishes, like her family’s Maltese Pizza where she tells a lovely story about her aunt and a day at the beach, one of my favorite posts.

Next is Courtney from CoCo Cooks
Her blog is so interesting, because you never know what kind of food to expect on any given day - she gets inspired by different ingredients or a dish and then goes into her kitchen and makes something based on that inspiration. You can also see her cooking up new dishes based on what she gets from her weekly vegetable box, like those yummy looking Mashed Turnips with Feta! Did someone say Feta???

Looking for great Lebanese food? I always am. If you are too, then you’ve got to check out Mag’s Blog Hommus & Tabbouli.
All of her dishes are totally authentic and she takes the mystery out of all your favorites like falafel, hummus and stuffed grape leaves. I made the Stuffed Grape Leaves from her blog and they were amazing! I could eat everything on her blog, everyday. This is some of the best food in the world!

Now for the two newbies. Like I’ve said in the past, I get tons of new requests to join The Foodie Blogroll everyday, and I have the pleasure of checking them all out. I love this job because I get to see all the great new blogs and get inspired all over again!

A few weeks before my big break, Aaron from Xocoatl Express joined The Foodie Blogroll and I fell in love with his blog right away. Aaron is chocolate obsessed and enjoys making and eating chocolate, like these delicious truffles that he created for The Royal Foodie Joust. For me, I have always described myself as a “vanilla girl” because most of the chocolate that is readily available is honestly crap and not really chocolate at all. Aaron gets this, and his blog is all about real chocolate and how to pair it with the right wines…and cheese! What’s not to love in that equation? There are also non-chocolate related recipes as well.

Last but not least is the lovely Kari from Anticiplate.
Kari is a ballerina who has a love for cooking gourmet foods. She finds many similarities between dancing and cooking from artistry, to technical aspects to plating and performance. I really love how sophisticated, yet simply elegant her foods are. One of my recent favorites is her twist on Caprese salad. Her husband does not like tomatoes so she substituted the tomatoes for sweet, juicy mangoes! What do you say Roberto? You game? (Roberto on the other hand is a lover of tomatoes, and not a lover of mangoes…)!!!
Also, she has the cutest profile pic of her stuffed in a large stock pot - no joke, get over there and check it out!

I really want to also give a special shout out this week to Ivy, Valli
and Judy for awarding me with such honors as these. Things like this really do make my day and keep me going. I thank you all for all your support and keep blogging! Consider all of you tagged for these awards, because you all make my day and give this blog purpose

Well here I am guys, trying to get back in the swing of regular, full-time food blogging. I am pretty caught up with emails from all you lovely folks out there - thank you for all your well-wishes, they are much appreciated. I have been hanging out and catching up with my peeps on the forum - we have this month’s Royal Foodie Joust underway. The voting has started, and as always, it is our biggest competition yet. You have one more day to cast the vote for your favorite.
Some lucky winner will not only get their personalized apron, but also some Tupperware prizes from Ben at What’s Cooking,
who is not only sponsoring the Joust this month, but also hosting it in my stead. So big props to Ben. *woohoo*

Now on to the food, because that is why we are all here isn’t it? For the food? Well I am going to start at the end - the honeymoon and work my way back to the wedding food and the week before the wedding. I am still waiting on pictures from the wedding, so it kind of defeats the purpose to discuss lovely food without proper documentation. So alas, we start at the end of this adventure into marriage.

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Hi Everyone!

Thank you so much for all your kind words, thoughts and well-wishes for our wedding day! We have not gotten our professional pictures yet, but here is a candid taken by my cousin, Patrick.

I am happy to report that Roberto and I are now husband and wife. I must say it turned out beautifully. There were a few minor snafus as there always are, but it was a perfect day in every other way. We spent a lot of lovely time with family and friends and of course we ate well from the day Roberto’s mom arrived from Rome all the way through the honeymoon! (as if eating well is a change in our normal routine)…

Currently I am sorting through loads of emails, making my way over to the Forum and slowly starting to make my presence online again. So bear with me, as I am still on Jamaica Time.

If you have emailed me directly about anything to do with The Foodie Blogroll, I may not get back to you personally - our first order of business after we get settled is to implement the latest features and all will be notified about the next steps and what you need to do. Until then, hang tight.

But in the meantime, you can look forward to food stories about foods we enjoyed with our family leading up to the wedding, as well as the wedding day food, cake and some new favorite foods from Jamaica. So stay tuned!

Last week, my good buddy Dharm hosted the April edition of The Royal Foodie Joust. His post about itwas the funniest thing I have read in a long time, and I thought it would be fun to emulate his style of writing, but a little different genre. But after re-reading this post I just wrote, I should have just asked Dharm to write it for me! Anyway…

Can you see me waving the Queen’s wave to all of you?

“Hear Ye, Hear Ye! It is decreed that the The Queen of Leftovers is officially beginning her Royal Tour of the provinces. She will be stopping first in the Southern Coast provinces of San Augustino, where she will marry the beloved Lord Roberto, Duke of Technical Support. They will be attended by her retinue of their family and friends on the white sandy beaches where their joining will bring much food, libation, merriment and technical where withal to the land. After a few days of rest and enjoying the salty ocean breezes they will leave and head on to the Land of the Turquoise Waters, The Caribbean Island of Jamaica, for their Moon of Honey (or should we say, their Moon of Pina Colada)”.

Sadly it will not last a moon, just a quarter moon, but any moon is a good moon in my book!

I promise to bring back delicious tales of food and adventure!

As an appropriate farewell for now, I will share something with you that we do every Spring Solstice (which was a few weeks ago). We plant a little garden. This time due to the fact that we have very little outdoor space we planted a little herb garden. Spring is a time of renewal and birth. It is when the earth wakes up and life starts to rise up all around us. It is the perfect time to reflect on the things you want to be born out of your own life during the next year. So with a wedding coming up, it was especially focused this year. So with every seed we plant, we make a wish on it - like:
“this seed is for a beautiful wedding day”, “this seed is for a happy marriage”, “this seed is for many more wonderful meals”, “this seed is for lots of love and kisses”, “this seed is for continuing down the right path”, “this seed is for the health and happiness of our loved ones”, you get the picture. It is a great way to plant your seeds for the future both figuratively and in reality! If you wish it, is will be so.

Another declaration is that this month’s Royal Foodie Joust has begun. Michelle from Thursday Night Smackdown won this past challenge with her Coconut-Yellowtail Lollipops with a Trio of Spicy Lime Dipping Sauces. Her choice of ingredients for this month’s Joust are Mango, Brown Sugar and Cardamom. You can join in on the fun here! This month’s Joust, in the Queen’s absence, will be overseen by Ben the Brave from What’s Cooking? Ben will also be sponsoring the Joust this month by giving away prizes to the first, second and third place winners this month from his Tupperware business, in addition to the personalized apron for the first place winner! So go check out the forum to get more details!

Thank you Ben!

See you soon!

Summer is definitely closing in on the heels of spring here in the Sunshine State of Florida. We finally had to succumb to putting the AC on yesterday. The humidity here is getting out of control - so we use the AC to take the moisture out of the air. This always portends the coming of summer in this climate. Since by the time we get back from the wedding, summer will be in full swing here, I thought this week I would feature blogs that make me think of summer for various reasons. That way, if you are still in the beginning of spring where you are, you can use ideas from this blog to get your summer on!

First off, we must talk about Cynthia’s Blog Tastes Like Home
She lives in Barbados, but is originally from Guyana and talks about Guyanese food (as well as other Caribbean cuisine). Everyone in the food blogosphere knows Cynthia - her blog is very popular and she has many loyal readers. I think it is because the way she writes about food and her food photography makes it feel like you are sitting at her table, sharing her food with her, while she talks to you about it. I imagine visiting Cynthia, would be much the same as reading her blog. Cynthia was one of the first people to welcome me to the foodie blogosphere and her passion for the foods of the Caribbean is what keeps all the visitors coming back!

Next we have my good friend Ben, from What’s Cooking?
Ben grew up around food in his parents’ restaurant in Mexico. So his love and understanding of food goes way back to his childhood. Mexican food is so ubiquitous these days - with restaurants dedicated to that food in nearly every town in the US. Ben focuses on real, authentic Mexican food - which is actually very hard to find, despite all the restaurants that claim to serve it. I love reading his posts because I usually learn something - whether it be an ingredient, or a way of preparing a dish I have eaten, but never really knew how to make it. His blog is fresh and delicious!

Then we have Sylvia of La Vida en Buenos Aires y afines…
Sylvia’s blog impresses me each and every time I visit it. Her dishes are always innovative and beautiful. The composition of her dishes is clearly a work of art and she has a very fine touch - very aesthetic and I am sure delicious as well. I always knew there were a lot of Italians in Argentina, because I had a few Argentinian friends in high school. There is a fusion to Argentinian cooking - it is a mix of Latin and Italian flavors. A taste of Europe in South America. Fusion cultures always fascinate me. I love to see how the native foods of a country change after its people emigrate elsewhere. Although Sylvia is originally from Brazil (another wonderful food country), her husband is Italian, so she is often making Italian food - in ways that are slightly different than their Americanized counterparts. She also makes a lot of beautiful dishes native to South America and the grilling culture there. Always intersting.

Next is Nikki from Canary Girl
Nikki and her family live in the Canary Islands, Spain. Her food is so good! She has a good time in the kitchen, often experimenting and just enjoying time with her kids. Her blog gives off this fun-loving feel. Again, her food just always looks so fresh and delicious - like it is just jumping off the plate at you and you just want to bite right into it!

Another Caribbean blog I love is Sarina’s Trini Gourmet
The goal of her blog for her is to bring the cuisine of Trinidad to a larger global market. It really is an impressive blog, full of great pictures and step by step instructions for some fabulous recipes. I tell you, there is a whole world of food out there that I really don’t know much about, but it sure gets my taste buds working when I look at those beautiful dishes.

So here is my tribute to summer coming on!

If you would like to nominate your favorite blog from The Foodie Blogroll, please click here

If you would like to JOIN The Foodie Blogroll, for your chance to have your blog featured here, please click here

Okay guys, Brussel Sprout season is coming to an end, so I wanted to give them a little tribute since I love them so much. I know they have a pretty bad reputation out there. I also know I am talking to people who really appreciate food – so I am guessing you guys are a little more open minded about these cute little mini-cabbages and probably there are many of you reading this right now that also adore this vegetable! However, I am sure there are a few of you who are turning their nose up as we speak. So just hear me out, okay?

Lately I have seen lots of recipes out on the net targeting people who hate Brussel Sprouts – so here I am to give you a few more
recipes for your arsenal to welcome the members of the brassica (Brussel sprouts, cauliflower and cabbages) family onto your plate.

First, is my classic recipe where I just steam them and then throw them in a pan to sautee with onions, garlic and toss with a home made honey mustard vinaigrette. Sometimes I add a bit of bacon when I am sauteeing and it is a delicious side dish or main meal. I love this recipe so much, I got into the habit of making Brussel sprouts this way all the time – so I decided we needed to change it up a bit. So I did. I had a bunch of little bits of stuff in the fridge that needed to be used up, so I went with that as my inspiration.

This new way is even better than my old way and you will love it too!

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There is a national campaign called Go Organic! that educates and increases consumer awareness of the benefits of organic food and agriculture. I was contacted by their marketing company to let you all know about a great contest. For Earth Day, Go Organic! is offering a chance to win a Grocery Makeover with celebrated Chef and Mom-a-licious® author Domenica Catelli. 

I think this is a great contest because it is spreading the word about something that I care very deeply about - organic products and educating the public about how you can live a more organic lifestyle which is not only good for health, but good for the environment. Even though it is not always easy, I think it is important to educate ourselves about healthier ways of living and do what we can to improve the quality of our lives. Especially being foodies, I think it is doubly important to learn more about the food that we put into our bodies and how it gets from the field to the plate. There are lots of great cooks and chefs out there, so I wish all of you the best of luck in this contest! I think it would be great if one of us in the food blogging community would win this

To learn more about Organics and Going Organic for Earth Day, click here

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Recently we had my family over for an open house. We have been in our new place for a while now and not everyone had been here to see it. So we decided to do a luncheon. I had two ideas going into this party – I wanted to make something rustic and old-school hearkening back to the times that Italians stopped what they were doing to enjoy a nice lunch spread together out in the fields, on a big slab of wood turned into a table. Also along this theme, I really wanted to make something using ingredients that we already had at home.

Too many times when preparing for a party, I decide on a menu and then go and buy all the ingredients. This time, I wanted to challenge myself more and use what was around. We had been to the Farmer’s market the day before and had gotten our staples: potatoes, tomatoes, squashes, onions and beautiful bread. We also had a bag of frozen mussels in the freezer. So I decided to make a regional dish from Puglia, called Tiella di Cozze or Mussel Casserole – it is said to have descended from Spanish Paella. Since we were having a crowd, I also added some shrimp to the dish, which was topped off with a delicious bread crumb and parmesan topping! It was wonderful.

We served it with a nice green salad,Garlic-Rosemary Foccacia from Maria, the bread lady at the Farmer’s Market and finished with a

Yogurt Carrot Cake with Toasted Hazelnuts . Keep reading for the recipes.

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