Happy Blogday to Me! (Giveaway)

January 19, 2011

Today is A Spicy Perspective’s First Birthday! One year ago today I started blogging with this post:

I guess it’s fairly prosaic to say I have a love affair with food. We all do, right? Mine started at grandma’s house with classic bolognese. Simmered all day–the smell was so enticing you could hardly play in the house without being lured to the kitchen on tiptoe to stick your finger into the pot. Trust me, the lick was worth the scold!

My next memories of food-love go to the grand cookie extravaganza that my mother pulled off every December. I recall making dozens and dozens of pecan crescents, chocolate swirls, butter cookies, gingerbread men, and something truly delectable called potato chip cookies! Yes, it sound’s strange, but the culmination of simple, sweet shortbread with salty, crunchy potato chips in each bite is divine! Even now, the only thing I can think of that might improve upon potato chip cookies is…potato chip cookies drizzled with chocolate!

As a teenager I had the opportunity to travel abroad and help with mission work every summer. Ages 14-22 I traveled to China, Thailand, India 3 times, Liberia, and Cameroon. As you can imagine my eyes were truly opened to a world of culinary possibilities–among other things. The endless smells of wildly exciting open air markets. Loud chattering over the price of meat hanging from a clothesline. Baskets and baskets full of spices of which I’d never seen or heard. Dried fish leather, street meat on a stick, naan. Ah, naan! There’s just nothing like freshly baked naan, slathered in garlic butter at an open air market! It’s an experience we all should be so lucky to have.

Every summer I would keep a journal of my daily work, my interludes with new friends, and the life lessons a young girl can only learn by taking her eyes off herself and focusing them on the much greater needs of others. I also took notes on the flavorful dishes I experienced. I didn’t know it at the time, but that was my introduction to recipe writing. I would come home at the end of each summer and try to replicate some of the foods I’d eaten; now-and-again with success.

Over the years cooking has become a method of self-expression, a way to communicate love…and possibly a calling? One husband, two children, 2 careers, and a bundle of little revelations later; I have decided to document the lessons I’ve learned and the recipes that followed.

…It’s been a TASTY year of experimentation, laughter, and new friends! I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have. Here are some of ASP’s most popular dishes this year:

Rosemary and Onion Foccacia Loaves

Tomato Stack Salad

Gingersnap Ice Cream Cups with Blueberry-Lavender Sauce

Malabar Chicken Curry

Oatmeal Cream Pies

Jalapeno Corn Cakes with Avocado Salsa

Dulce de Leche and Nutella Thumbprints with Sea Salt

Seared Scallop and Watermelon Salas with Sparkling Mint Vinaigrette

Blueberry Pie with Sweet Almond Crust

Vietnamese Bun Cha Gio’ Bowls

Broiled Pear and Prosciutto Toasts

Finally, I have a Blogday present for YOU!

Villery & Boch, a 263 year old company, world-renouned for fine ceramics and crystal, has offered a set of their new Scott Whiskey glasses as an ASP giveaway! Ladies, this is the PERFECT Valentine gift for a man who has everything. Trust me, I showed my husband the photos of these glasses and he Ooooed and Ahhhed!

The giveaway includes a set of 2 Crystal Nosing Goblets and 2 Crystal Lowlands Whisky Tumblers.