Fall is in the air! Actually, it’s not in the air; in SW Ohio, we reached almost 90 degrees F today. I’m ready for 65 degree days, a touch of fog first thing in the morning, and temps that make you want to cook a pot of veggie soup all day long!

This is a tough month/year right now. Last September, I lost the Best Dog in World (a phrase I am now using when talking about Woody, thanks to Barbara at A Writer Afoot) . This year, we lost Patterson, the Best Cat in the World. One thing I have come to believe is that the first animal we adopted as adults is likely to carry the most meaning with it, the most emotion, the strongest bond. Why is this? I think it’s because it’s likely the first time we, as adults, accepted the responsibility to care for another living being. It’s something of a rite of passage into adulthood. So Woody was my dog; he was the dog God meant for me to have, the dog I would need when I was alone in other ways, the dog that would mean that I still wouldn’t be lonely. I think Patterson was that for my wife (but the cat, not the dog, that did all that for her).

Patterson was supposedly a Himalayan, but I’m not sure; he was pure Bacon Cat. Yeah, not a breed, but all I had to do was open a bacon package, and he was there telling me, very vocally, that he was glad I was fixing bacon for him, could I have it NOW(?). He loved bacon.

We miss him, a lot.

As a bit of a distraction from that, my wife and I are going to go out of town this coming weekend. We’re taking another trip to one of my favorite cities, Pittsburgh. This time, however, we’re staying out in Cranberry Township, but we’ll be heading into the Strip District, going to Vincent’s and the Dirty O, and maybe Primanti Brothers this time. I’ll try to get some shots of the Strip District to share; it’s a great place to go for foodies… You’ll see… No strippers at all, just shops and food!

Two things, among others, that I always look forward to in Ohio in October are apples and fall colors. We’re getting neither this year, though. A drought has been going on, and the fall color isn’t expected to be anything much at all, and an April freeze has taken out almost half of Ohio’s apple crop this year. The orchard I where I like to get my apples has zero, yeah, I said nada, apples this year. They’re bringing in foreign apples from Indiana and Michigan. (The photo of the tree was actually taken in their drive on the way out a couple of years ago).

The weekend of the 13th and 14th, however, is the Ohio Sauerkraut Festival, the largest festival in Ohio. Our town of less than 2500 people (Waynesville, OH) will host well over 300,000 guests for the weekend. Last year, an estimated 342,000 people attended. We sold pulled pork sandwiches last year, but, with everything else going on right now, we’re not going to do that this year. Instead, we’ll just enjoy the weekend and the festival.

The morning of the festival, I’ll be out with some friends shooting sporting clays. Not food related, no, but a lot of fun! A friend of mine has some new Citori shotguns that need to be broken in… What a friend I am to help out, huh?

The weekend of October 19-20, the Ohio Smoked Meat Festival will take place. We’re not competing this year, but my wife and I are going to see if judges are needed. This will be in Nelsonville, OH, which is a really pretty area, so it will be nice to get away and not have the stress of competing so we can just enjoy being out talking with teams and eating good barbecue!

Then the month will close with the annual McAdams Wine Party. We have to be careful as this thing is getting out of hand, with up to 22 people coming. I’m going to fix all the food, and our theme is French wines. Each couple coming will be two bottles of French wine, one red, one white. For food, I’m going to do some steak au poivre, loaves of bread, French cheeses, something vegetarian (and French), and… pan-seared, fresh foie gras on grilled brioche! I’ll be talking more about this, of course.

I’m also going to be doing a bit of research on foie gras. For any that don’t know, foie gras is goose or duck liver (I’ll be getting duck) from birds that have enlarged livers. Animal rights terrorists people have been going after foie gras production and serving, stating that the farming practices are inhumane. Before serving my guests, I’m going to do some research and get some viewpoints from a producer.

As summer peaks, start taking your food photos celebrating the best that summer has to offer!  This edition of the Carnival of Food Photography is all about summer and summer foods!

Gather up the best the season has shown you, take some photos of it, put it in your blog, and enter it here!  I know some people that are reading this are capable of not only great photos, but know how to get a shot that says ‘SUMMER’!!! (yes, I’m talking to you, Nika and Nicole, and others!)

Welcome to the June 12, 2007 edition of Carnival of Food Photography!  Remember, the focus is on the photo!

 I got a lot more entries this time… Thanks to all that submitted.  I think I’ve got all of the entries represented except one, which was in a forum, not a blog… I apologize, but the Carnival is for blogs!

The first entry is an great looking cookie photo from MC, on Shibooya… Apricot Cream Cheese Butter Cookies… What can be bad there?  You’ve got fruit (healthy), cream cheese (yum), butter (even more yum) all mixed up into a cookie!

Along the theme of fruit, Robert submitted an entry on Lauren’s Vegan Journal for Strawberry Soup (Do you think Lauren will be offended being included on a barbecue-related blog???  I hope not!   Lauren, if you are, just let me know… I’ll take care of it, but your soup sounds great!).

Suzanne submitted Uber No Knead Bread (a recipe I’m going to have to try) from Adventures in Daily Living.  I love good, homemade bread, as anyone that regularly reads this knows by now.

Next, we have the eggs to go with the bread, Shinie’s Mutant Egg on Well I Guess This Is Growing Up!  You’ll need two slices of Suzanne’s bread to mop up all that yolk!

Martin Westwood, in Great Britain, submitted some ribs then reorged, but I found this photo of his on BBQ Brit... Chris Lilly Ribs! (not actually Chris’s ribs, but his recipe :)  I’m glad to see that some Brits are making good barbecue.

And moving into some tasty looking pasta, Vishal K Bharadwaj has a great looking Lemon Pepper lingquine at AllVishal.com.  There’s a great photo of the finished product, but I thought this photo of the pepper was pretty cool.

Thanks to everyone that submitted blogs for this edition of Carnival of Food Photography!  Nicole, I know you’re going to be reading this… You better send me something next time!!!!!

I tried this last year, and I only got 1 response.  So this time I hope it works out a bit better!

I’m going to try doing another Blog Carnival on Food Photography.  Now, I know lots of you out there are taking photos of your food.  I’ve seen you in the same restaurants I’ve been in, while I’m also taking photos of my food.  I’ve seen your blogs, and there’s some great stuff out there (Nicole, I expect to see something from you… Same with you, Dr. G!). 

Here how it works; submit your entries HERE.  I’ll get emails of the submissions, and I’ll post info about them.  I may email you for more info if needed, but the goal is to mostly focus on the photos themselves, with links back to your blog entries for more info.

Come on… Here’s a chance to show off you stuff!

Oh, and when you enter your submission, there’s a problem with finding the Carnival of Food Photography… Select any carnival from the list, as I’m only doing this one right now!

In 3 weeks exactly, my barbecue competition teammate, Mark, and I will be holding our first cooking class!  (Details can be found here.)  With that in mind, later this week, we’ll be reviewing the class and deciding what we’re going to be doing.  The theme is tailgating, and, weather permitting, we’ll set up a pseudo-competition site to show the people in the class how a comp might be run.  We’ll also be cooking all the food we’ll be going over with the class.  My thoughts are to include more than recipes, though; I want to talk about the different types of outdoor cooking and how/when to use different types of outdoor cooking (direct, indirect, smoking).  I hope to have a really good packet of info for everyone, with the 2 part goal of getting more people interested in barbecue/outdoor cooking and to be asked to do a class again.

Also this week, I’m going to go over flank steak and how I like to prepare it.  It’s a great, healthy hunk o’ beef.  The only real downside is the toughness, which is negated if cut correctly against the grain.  I’m partial to coffee based rubs for flank steak, and I may try grilling it directly on the coals this time…

I am planning on doing a little bit about over-smoking.  Over-smoking can leave bitter tastes, and can really turn someone off of smoked foods.  There are easy ways to recognize over-smoking, though, and some pretty simple ways to avoid it (hint: don’t use so much wet wood!).

Next Monday is the deadline for the next Carnival of the Grill, which I’ll be hosting.  Click here to submit entries, and the Carnival of the Grill will be posted on September 5.

And the next week, on September 11, I’ll be posting the first of the Carnival of the Food Photography entries, with the topic of "Grill Marks".  Submit any blog entries you have that show great grill marks!  If you have any suggestions for food photos you’d like to see, let me know!

I have to admit I’m having fun with this blog community stuff.  There’s a huge range of approaches to food, and people are writing about it all over the world.

I’ve recently been included in 2 ‘carnivals’, which are groupings of blog entries that pertain to a topic.  One is the Carnival of the Recipes: BBQ Edition, and the other is Carnival of the Grill.  In fact, I’ll be hosting the next Carnival of the Grill.  Submissions have to be in by September 5, 2006 (the day after Labor Day in the US).  Please send stuff in to give me lots to choose from!

I also decided to start up a Carnival of my own: The Carnival of Food Photography!  Instead of concentrating on a type of cooking like grilling or barbecuing, I want to focus on great pictures of food, with varying topics.  (get the pun… focus… photos…).

The first Carnival of Food Photography will have a submission deadline of September 10th… and the topic is:

(drumroll)

Grill Marks!

So, while there’s no stipulation as to the type of cooking or what’s being cooked, I want to see some GREAT grill mark photos.  These can be from indoor cooking as well as outdoor, but, when we have grilled items, those grill marks really get a lot of oohs and aahs!  So let’s see your best!

Click here to submit an entry!

If you have any topics for the carnival you’d like to see, let me know.  I already have some in mind, but I’m open to suggestions!