A Milestone for a Friend... and a Kick in the Pants

Yesterday, my friend Andy Jackson celebrated the third anniversary of his Disney World themed food blog Eating (and Drinking) around the World. It occurs to me that a week from today will mark 2 years since my own first post here... but I don't think I should be celebrating any anniversaries for my hit-and-miss, stop-and-start performance.

Andy, on the other hand, has been a reliable, and reliably readable, blogger, covering food doin's around Walt Disney World; the annual EPCOT Food and Wine Festival; the celebrity chefs he's met, including Iron Chef Cat Cora and Top Chef Masters alum Suvir Saran; and his own cooking, eating, and drinking inspired by all of the above. Heck, once he even wrote about hanging out with me!

And I have to admit that some of my best moments here at Emerging Foodie (and my best moments in the kitchen) have come in cooking (or mixing) recipes from Andy's blog:

• Not only is Andy's Korean Lettuce Wraps with Roast Pork and Kimchee Slaw a favorite among his readers, it's a favorite in my house as well. After I tried it, my family liked it so much that every time I say I'm going to cook, they request that one meal. This simplified version of bo ssam inspired me to want to try the more challenging version in David Chang's Momofuku, but my family keeps driving me back to the tried-and-true. We even had it for Christmas dinner last year!
• I got yet another post out of that one recipe: The Korean sesame mayo is so tasty that I made it separately, just as a condiment, and used it as the base for a Korean-inspired chicken salad sandwich.
• And then there's the Margarita of the Month series, from which I've drawn the Spicy Ginger Basil Margarita...
• ...the Cucumber Jalapeno Margarita...
• ...and my own Tequila Sunburn using the habanero-infused tequila I made from Andy's recipe.

So congratulations, Andy, on 3 great years of blogging, and thanks for all the material...

...and thanks for the kick in the pants. starting this week, I'm going to try to keep up with you! I've already got some recent cooking exploits that I can write up, and some projects in mind, and some goodies in the garden that want cooking or canning. Watch this space!