If you don't generally hang in the blogosphere...

You may not be aware that food blogs and their relevant photography are the genuine article: They are counted on for information, recipes, testing, and insight by a food community once completely dependent on just a few magazines monthly and an occasional useful book release. No more. Now, it is all food all the time should you wish it to be.

Once in a while, I will get an email here at Blushing Hostess or have a comment from a friend regarding how they "don't get" this blog. Or, my personal favorite and a hot-button issue with the Hostess that they don't eat "weird" food and therefore, "don't get it."

From the beginning, Blushing Hostess was not intended to be a "what's Catherine up to" continuing newsletter of sorts. Though there are many fine blogs of this nature which fill an important communication role especially for those far away from the people they care about, this is not one of them. No, the Hostess is here to chronicle a life in cooking, voracious culinary reading, experiences, and all things related to food. But even more so, I arrived here as encouragement: This cooking thing, it's not hard, it does not take too long, it is better for you and your budget than eating out, and I truly believe gathering at table helps people stay together and persevere. There are others like me blogging (writing) on food for a thousand other reasons and interests. The community is huge, talented, and comments on an immense amount of items relevent to everyone in some way because we all need to eat to survive.

I am pleased to note the premier institution of culinaria, The James Beard Foundation. will recognize food bloggers for their work as members of the culinary writing community as reported by Slashfood today. It isn't all just glossy magazines anymore...