Blogsurfing Saturday

Here we are again, another Blogsurfing Saturday .  You are going to love what I have found.

How has your week been?  Mine was total insanity, as usual.  My thyroid scans were Tuesday and Wednesday, and they did find some abnormalities.  So I am being scheduled for a biopsy, and not sure when that is going to happen.   Then we had Marc in to the VA on Thursday.  Good thing the VA hospital is close by, between Marc and I we were there 3 times this week!

I got an email to do an interview with a bakery and you guys are going to love this interview!  I am not saying which one, or why you will love it ..You just need to trust me on this one.

Last night Erin, Jon, and the grandkids came over for a casual dinner, the peach tea and ginger ice cream, butter bars, and to watch Bride Wars.  It was lots of fun.  We did a sandwich bar with several kinds of deli meat and cheese, and baguettes.  These are the things that are important in life, the time spent with family and building relationship.  They don’t seem so important at the time but the memories created are eternal.

Today, Marc and the two youngest boys are mountain biking.  He will get the home this afternoon and head to work.  Feels like a long (not in a good way) weekend in the works.

Next week I will be posting the recipes for the peach tea ice cream and the butter bars.  The butter bars are from my cookbook and  they are absolutely so simple it isn’t funny.  Plus? Oh my gosh..delicious.

So…ready for some Blogsurfing?

Passionate About Baking is a blog that I found this month  through Twitter.  Deeba is not only one of the sweetest people I have ever met in cyber-reality but she creates amazing food and breathtaking photos.  Check out this strawberry swiss roll to see what I mean.  I have made rolls before but she decorated the roll to look like Chantilly lace sort of.  Beautiful.

Inge of Vanielje Kitchen is a long time blogger foodie friend.  Someday I will (I WILL) visit her across the sea and sit in her kitchen surrounded by wonderful aromas … Until then the computer allows me to trek to her blog in seconds, at least when I remember.  The problem is that I can’t actually taste the beautiful things like these almond and berry friands.

Courtney from Coco Cooks is another person on my dream road trip, although a bit more do-able.  She has had the opportunity to review a cookbook this week, and has not only created a drool-worthy banana pudding from it, but it giving away a copy as well!

I should not have to elaborate on this.  Key Lime Pie from My Baking Addiction.

tastebuds and blossoms has a recipe for chile mandarin  orange sauce.   I can think of several (thousand) ways to use this!

Adorable Mother’s Day Cake Pops from Bakerella.

Two Peans and Their Pod….Chocolate Toffee Brownies.…hey! Where did ya go?

Oh…by the way…this is what Saturday looks like at my house…

Note that the chip bag AND the computer match.  I will be doing a review on the chips next week..but in the meantime?  Buy them.

The Tuesdays with Dorie crowd did a Tiramisu cake this week.  Worth checking them all out, but I saw it first at Katrina’s Baking and Boys.

Bunny’s Warm Oven is a beautiful blog and you have to see these Gooey Pineapple-Licious Jumbo Cuppys!

Now, between tests and hospital runs I missed out on some prime controversy this week.  I am, of course, talking about The Food Blogger’s Code of Ethics. I have read through it..and, since this is my last link for blogsurfing today you can stop now, or read my thoughts.

I have had my content scraped.  I have recently had a recipe published without credit by a national magazine ::cough Tea Time:::  I have had my images taken without credit..I have also had people email me for permission to use these things.  I, as a brand new blogger, inadvertantly made mistakes and used other people’s recipes with out link backs.

We live in a world where there are rules for everything.  Frankly,  gun control laws piss me off.  Having someone tell me I HAVE to wear a seatbelt pisses me off. I would wear one anyway, I just don’t think it should be mandated.  I could go on but I think you get the idea.  Here is the deal.  Honest people may make honest mistakes once in awhile but normally they will correct it or not repeat it.  Dishonest people will not be disuaded by a Code of Ethics, and I can see, with the right backing and push, this Code of Ethics becoming something that is forced on bloggers if they want to continue to blog.  I don’t believe in special interest groups or unions, just so you know exactly how I think.

Food blogs do well for a remarkably small number of reasons.

• Quality content
• Quality images
• Appealing writing style
• Contribution and involvement.
• Consistency

Even Julia Child, were she alive and writing a blog, could not maintain good stats without those aspects.  A blog that steals content will be self defeating over a short period of time.

I will not be joining in the Code of Ethics group.  If you, my readers, do not feel that I am ethical, transparent, worthy of reading then there are some amazing blogs out there that are!  I personally don’t need any more rules in my life.  Common courtesy will cover most of the *Code of Ethics* anyway.

If someone publishes my content I will ask them to remove it or credit it.  If they refuse I will deal with it however I see fit.  I am against big, intrusive government in my personal life, and it doesn’t appeal to me in my cyber-life either.  Just like gun control will not keep guns out of criminals hands, just like people who are going to buckle their seatbelt will do it whether or not there is a law, so the Code of Ethics is written on our hearts or it is not.  Ethical people will act in ethical ways always.

I hope, before you choose to be part of any group or promise to instill a code of any type, you think carefully about what you are creating and future ramifications.  If  I begin to see Code of Ethics badges popping up I will be adding this to my posts:

Have a great weekend!

image 1: Cori

image2: marye audet

image 3: SXC photoshopped by marye audet