Please to enjoy. Or not.

Hotels Magazine recently released a list of 13 overall hotel food trends and 10 menu item/ingredient trends to expect in 2009, compiled by experts around the industry.

Those I agree with? Farm-to-table cuisine, more seasonal menus, and “innards and odd parts,” ie, guanciale, artisan salami, beef cheeks, and tongue.

Check out the list, and let’s see what happens in 2009.

It’s December 1st … where has the year gone?

Seriously, I feel like it was just yesterday that I was frolicking on the beach in Florida and now there’s snow on the ground (no, not that type of frolicking).

I’ve never been the biggest fan of snow, but waking up to it this morning wasn’t so bad after the amazing Thanksgiving weekend I had. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and this year was the best ever.

On Tuesday, i-squared hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for the clients of the International Institute of St. Louis. As i-squared President, I dutifully helped set-up and serve food to a number of refugee families. Seeing the gratitude expressed by them was amazing, and the experience made me truly appreciate how great my life is.

On Thursday, Chuck and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving lunch with my family that included all the traditional turkey day dishes … roast turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, and my mom’s awesome jello salad just to name a few. Afterwards, we descended up on his sister’s house for another Thanksgiving meal that included … yep, you guessed it … roast turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, and his mom’s awesome jello salad too.

As if we weren’t “Thanksgivinged out” enough, Chuck and I banded together with three other couples for “Hardcore Thanksgiving” on Saturday. We started with an amazing cheese plate from Bill and Ellie that included a cheese from one of my favorite cheesemakers, Cowgirl Creamery. I first sampled their cheese at Slow Food Nation, and it was amazing!

Irene cooked up an amazing cheese souffle, which was followed by her delicious butternut squash soup with crispy guanciale … talk about pig heaven.

Bill roasted a heritage turkey … a Bourbon Red from Farrar Out Farms. Was the heritage turkey better than the average Butterball bird? Yes, but that’s a discussion for another post.

Bill also whipped up an amazing stuffing from a Dan Barber recipe, while Chuck brought his mom’s stuffing (his favorite … thanks, Ginger!). The two of them also whipped up a tasty gravy to top it all off with.

I made roasted brussel sprouts with blue cheese and candied pecans (thanks to Chuck for prepping the brussel sprouts AND glazing the pecans for me!), and of course, I also made my famous sweet potato casserole.

Rounding out dinner were mashed potatoes from Mike and a truly hardcore cranberry relish from Chuck (cranberries, orange peel, cinnamon, sugar, and lots and lots of rum, which was poured off and made into an amazing cranberry cocktail that we drank earlier in the evening).

On the dessert end, Irene made mini apple turnovers that were light, flaky, and delicious, Mike whipped up an Imperial Russian Stout cheesecake that knocked my socks off, and I made a praline, pumpkin, cream cheese pie that tasted pretty darn good. And throughout the entire evening were wine pairings from Ned and Kelly who also opened up their house for this awesome shindig.

See, I told you I had a pretty good life!

So, here comes another one of those “sorry I haven’t posted in a while” posts …

Why no posts of late you ask? Well, I normally don’t get too personal on this blog, but in a nutshell … I have a new job, which I have to spend a lot of time doing, and I have a new boyfriend (yep, you guessed it, his name is Chuck), who I want to spend a lot of time doing … things with ; )

While the new job is keeping me incredibly busy, it also allows me to travel to lots of other countries where many new food experiences await … and the new boyfriend is a chef so even more new food experiences await there too.

What does this mean to you, faithful reader? Hopefully lots of interesting food stories that will spark hours of discussion … or at least a laugh or two!

P.S. No, I won’t be sharing any stories about our love life … but our culinary antics in the kitchen will surely be broadcast here.

Today is Blog Action Day, and this year’s topic is poverty.

I know I shouldn’t, but I’m going to cheat and point you to another St. Louis blogger who actually wrote a great post (come on … it’s 9:00pm, and I’m trying to juggle catching up on work e-mail, watching the Presidential debate, and posting something to this blog).

So, please check out this great post, St. Louis Urban Farm Provides Fresh Food and Economic Empowerment, from Jeff McIntire-Strasburg at sustainablog.