I'm really looking forward to seeing the film FoodInc.. Unfortunately, it's not planned to be shown in Tampa, but we'll have the option of going to Winter Park or Sarasota. I don't actually visit the theatre often, but in this case, I want to support something that I am extremely passionate about, and not wait for it to make it to DVD.

Though this site started out as simply a place for me to share dishes, I have bigger plans in the coming weeks (yeah, I know, you've heard that before), and one of them is to use this site as a forum to join the grassroots movements in pressuring our government to make some real change in our laws. It's high time that we as a country take back our dinner table away from the big agra-businesses and put them back into the hands of the farmers dedicated to producing healthy, sustainable products.

Just about every website has jumped on the social network bandwagon, ala MySpace and Facebook, and now cooking and recipe sites are fully on board as well. Equally, there's no shortage of sites trying to be the Facebook of food, and these are just a few I've recently run across. I have not actually registered and tried to use any of these, so they are not full reviews, just first impressions based on having explored many of these types of sites.

First up is Group Recipes, in the mandatory beta status, sporting the very clichéd web 2.0ish diagonal stripped background, tags, and user profiles. From their about page they aim to be

world's neatest food site. From meeting other food lovers to nifty recipe predictions and taste compatibility, Group Recipes has your grub needs covered. The project's goal is to harness the tastebuds of the masses to create a really useful resource for food lovers.

One interesting feature is "Roger" the robot, that is supposed to analyze your recipes and tastes and make recommendations based on your profile. Also included is a recipe stumbler, for those with no clue what to make for dinner, which could come in handy on those nights nobody can make a suggestion for dinner.

Next up is , Family Oven also in the ubiquitous beta status, and honestly, my exploration was cut quite short by the overwhelming amount of adds on the home page. The goal appears to be to allow cooks of all skill levels to create a profile page (think food blog ala wordpress.com) to share their love of food and recipes, including having videos. They've also incorporated a digg like feature "chomp it" (lame, huh?) to rate recipes, as well the ability to save for later, and create shopping lists based on recipes you've collected. The overall UI leaves me with something to be desired, so perhaps a second run might sway my opinion.

Following up that is Open Source Food, from the same developer who brought us the now deceased 8apps. Also a way for users to share their recipes, Open Source Food seems to have a larger emphasis on photos with recipes. One very interesting element with the recipes is that you can license your recipes (Creative Commons seems the most popular, and there's a link to "blog this" for a recipe, which you can embed in your own blog.

Example

Definitely a neat feature, and one I may explore.

Another site I recently came across is Super Cook allows you to "finds recipes you can make with the ingredients you have at home." I haven't tested this site, but will keep it bookmarked for those I just don't want to head out to the market.

Finally, not so much a social food and cooking site is Culinary Seductions which aims to show "food is the key that unlocks hearts, minds and a whole lot more. Our mission is to entertain and educate all those who are interested in winning their dates over with food." Obviously aimed at the bachelor/husband looking to impress the woman in the life, this site's goal is to share seductive recipes and techniques to achieve these dishes.

If you've come across other similar sites, or have one of your own which you'd like featured here on Cooking With, leave a comment and I'll be sure to take a look and share my thoughts.

Well, well, well. I had made a resolution to be more active with my food blogging in 2007, and so far, you can see, that's been a great big failure. I've been quite busy in my transformation from professional chef to professional web designer, and though I'm cooking more at home than previously, I haven't made the effort to blog about it. Shame on me. Let's see if I can make that change.

In the meantime, I came across a new community food site, Group Recipes. If you check them out and sign up before March 7th, you can be entered to win a $6000 dollar kitchen make over. So run over and sign up.

And I promise to myself if nobody else to bring back the recipes and a slightly new layout for the site soon.

Well Fed Network
I've really been a bad food blogger this year, and I've already made a New Year's resolution to to improve on that in 2007. In the meantime, if you are looking for people who actually blog about food, then hed over to Well Fed and look around at the nominees, and eventual winners. Perhaps by this time next year, I could ponder the possibilities of a nomination...

I enjoyed doing this last week, found some fun new sites, figured I would indeed try to make it a habit. So I've got some iTunes fired up (you can follow along here), and off we go.

First stop, is Anthony's Kitchen, where he's posted a recipe for Dahi Chicken w/ Capsicum. Anthony calls his site the "bachelor cooking blog", and is a place (I'm guessing) for bachelor men from India to find traditional recipes, to offer a respite from "outside" food as he calls it. Any recipe that calls for 8-9 cloves of garlic is a must try for me!
From their, we follow a link from Anthony's "world chefs" blog roll to Eat Stuff - A GIRL A GUY AND A CAT EATING STUFF AROUND SYDNEY AUSTRALIA. So we've found ourselves in Australia now, (from Tampa, to India to Australia in no time!). I really like the apple ginger dessert calzone they offer up. I've always been fond of desserts that take a twist on a savory dish. Once upon a time, in a different life, I would do chocolate "burritos". Basically it was chocolate rolled and filled with ganache, and then finished with a creme anglaise and warm chocolate sauce. But I digress. Where will we find our selves next?
Ah, Northern California this time, at I'm mad and I eat, where among other things, where we are told to not "vote for the twinkie" (cookiecrumb likes to mix a little politics into her food writing :) ). Aside from that, there are some beautiful pictures, and I really like the post on making ketchup. Definitely will be back this way sooner than later. So half way to our 6 degrees, what's next?
Ah, feeling a little thirsty, I see a link, Quaffability. Great, mostly wine, mostly under $12 (mostly from Trader Joes - something we don't have down here in Tampa, but we do have a liquor barn (or some Wine Warehouse type deal)). What's the latest offering? Perfect, a $4.99 bottle of Rosé. The heat here in Florida is getting to the point of justifiable homicide, so a Rosé is a perfect choice. Thanks. Another excellent site for the blogroll. This is fun.
A limited list of blogs to exit out of Quaffability leads us to a Knife's Edge, a blog on restaurant rants and raves. A funny story about getting a call from the Oprah show highlights the main page.
To wrap things up this week, I couldn't resist this blogs name in praise of sardines. Another west coast blogger (hmm, gotta find some foodies here on the east coast and down south), Brett discusses the differences of fresh, and FRESH seafood, as he discovered on a recent trip to Spain. Equally mentioned on the site, is I eat and I'm mad did, was a monthly "eat locally challenge". Great images of artichokes and cherries, among other images in other posts.
So there we have it, 6 more degrees of Cooking with miklb. From Florida, to India, to Australia, and then onto several stops on the west coast. I've added some new links, and will continue to look for more, so as to have an even greater choice of starting points. Look for a post soon on seafood from me as well, discussing some recent articles I've found on sustainability and responsible fishing.