Follow that blog: Two Peas and Their Pod

For today's food for thought friday let me introduce you to Two Peas and Their Pod, a blog featuring the culinary adventures of the cutest married couple, Maria and Josh: "We are a great team in the kitchen. We love trying new recipes, techniques, and flavors. We try to keep it healthy, but of course we have to splurge once in awhile."

They do splurge, and boy do I love it when they do! Take this Grilled Mediterranean Pizza they featured for Labor Day weekend:


Or these to-die-for Chocolate Chip Oreo Cookies:


The site is full of wonderful, tempting recipes, tasty photos and a few anecdotes that keep the posts "fresh." My question is, who does most of the cooking and who does most of the dishes?

Though not as decadent as the cookie recipe above, here's one of my all-time favorite cookie recipes from Allrecipes.com. Enjoy!

Mrs. Sigg's Snickerdoodles
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar, the eggs and the vanilla. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls.

Mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets.

"I've never felt like I was in the cookie business. I've always been in a feel good feeling business. My job is to sell joy. My job is to sell happiness. My job is to sell an experience." ~Debbi Fields

Created by Chicks-- a must-visit, must-bookmark, must-subscribe-to blog!

Quinn Curtis, my very good friend and partner in crime (okay, partner in planning the Moms Who Make It conference), just started a new blog appropriately and awesomely named CreatedByChicks. I absolutely LOVE the name; it's sassy with a lot of style thrown into the mix. And because it's been forever since we've had a fashion trend tuesday, I thought it more than appropriate to feature it today.

CreatedByChicks is brand, spankin' new so you'll want to check back and watch as it takes on a life of its own. I'm so totally sure it will since Quinn, the woman behind CreatedByMom.com, is behind it!

I’m just a chick who really digs celebrating creativity, especially creative chicks. I think the world needs more creativity. It gives us life & happiness to be creative, don’t you think?

That's the new blog in a nutshell, but a very concise, very creative nutshell. Her first post features beautiful headbands by kaang--the Lesley Flower headband is TO DIE FOR! Have your own fabulous creations and designs? You'll want to join the CreatedByChicks community by uploading pics of your "creative endeavors" to the CreatedByChicks Flickr group.

I am so excited about CreatedByChicks I can hardly stand it! I am anticipating it becoming one of the biggest, if not THE biggest, fashion blogs for crafty, creative women entrepreneurs, so check back regularly as she builds the site and adds a subscription option. You'll definitely want to catch this blog's updates! --Emily

Stephmodo's take on Living's Tex-Mex

Another fabulous blog to follow: Stephmodo. She has drool-worthy recipes along with drool-worthy designs, crafts and the most fabulous story about her family's adventure remodeling a French cottage (as in located IN France). Though I will never be as chic and sophisticated and creative as the woman behind Stephmodo (I'm so totally challenged that way) I can try some of her recipes without an overwhelming fear of failure.

I love her recent post featuring some yummy Mexican recipes out of Martha Stewart's Living, including Salsa Picante, Spanish Rice, guacamole and a Southwestern Salad. Having tried the recipes a few time she has some great pointers for the rest of us. And I love the idea of changing things up a bit with a backyard fiesta in place of the typical backyard BBQ!

So check out Stephmodo's take on traditional Tex-Mex and fall in love with the rest of her blog while you're at it! Olé! --Emily

First image from Stephmodo
Second set of images from Martha Stewart

Follow that blog: The Write Gal

Today features yet another fabulous blog I discovered while one of MomDot's America's Next Top Blogger competitors: The Write Gal. Christy from The Write Gal made it to the top three with Dore and me and only lost when I beat her to the phone to sing Tricia "The Star Spangled Banner." (Thank heavens Tricia didn't record my rendition of this historic song. The world is better off not hearing it!)

The Write Gal offers "advice about writing, shopping and everything else...(is there anything else?)" For many of us, shopping pretty much covers it though you could throw in a little reading and a few girls nights out. Christy loves to write and shop so blogging about both is a perfect fit! She is also a freelance business writer and consultant and a part-time college writing instructor in North Carolina. This girl is super busy! How did she have time to compete? Whew!

The Write Gal features reviews and giveaways, insights into motherhood, some fabulous Wordless Wednesday photos and, of course, a few grammar lessons for us all. I like variety in a blog and Christy's definitely has that!

You can subscribe to her blog and follow her on Twitter and even talk to her about her writing services.

Follow that blog: Dore's Diaries

Another fabulous woman I met via America's Next Top Blogger is Doré from Doré's Diaries, "an inside look into this thing [she] calls life." Doré and I were the final two in the competition yet remained friends through it all. In fact, she and I had an alliance from the get-go that started with a few text messages back and forth. Who knew those texts would take us to the finals?

Doré's blog is full of fun peeks into her life as a student (she'll graduate in December with her Bachelor's degree--go, Doré!), wife and mother:

I was born and raised in Central Louisiana and wouldn't want to call any other place home. I can do the whole girly dress up thing, but much prefer to just kick back in jeans and a T and be Me. Yes, I do have a country accent and I'm darn proud of it too!

She does have the cutest country accent--I've heard it over the phone! You can read more about her here.

Doré's Diaries has everything from her first Tackle It Tuesday (amazing transformation of her little boy's room) to her America's Next Top Blogger exploits to fabulous and fun giveaways. Along with subscribing to her blog you can follow Dore on Twitter.

Keep an eye out for us during MomDot's The Amazing Blogging Race--you better believe we'll be the team to watch because we'll be the team that wins! --Emily

Follow that blog: Life Starring Ellie and Eve

Sorry for not posting yesterday but I'm still recovering from an exhausting week. I have that exhausting-week hangover and it's not going anywhere anytime soon! But for today's wonderful web wednesday I did want to feature a fun blog I discovered while participating in MomDot's America's Next Top Blogger (just one of the perks of being part of a virtual reality show).

Life Starring Ellie and Eve is written by Victoria Arya, a fierce online competitor multitasking stay-at-home mom who can be found in numerous places in the blogosphere. You'll have to read her professional bio--I lost track of all the blogs for which she writes!

Life Starring Ellie and Eve features reviews of fun, cool and trendy gear for babies, kids and moms. It also features glimpses into Victoria's life chasing after her two little girls. As her headers says, she's "one cool momma with a lot to say." Life Starring Ellie and Eve has fabulous giveaways, resources for moms and other fun features. It's a lot to take in but totally worth it!

You can never have enough review-filled, giveaways-galore, total-mom-humor blogs on your RSS feed so add Life Starring Ellie and Eve if it's not there already! --Emily