Yep, after blogging nearly every day for close to three years, I am taking a week off of blogging! I know, how will you ever survive? Ha! 😀 I am sure by Tuesday of next week you’ll be thinking “I wonder if Biz worked out while on vacation or if she just said f_ck it and ate pork bbq five days in a row!” I’ll be back to regular posting on August 19th – hopefully with some vacation food porn and pretty pictures of the Lake.
What I am really looking forward to is reconnecting with the women in my family. Even in the days of email, twitter and facebook, its easy to get caught up in the daily routine and not touch base more often. We have some amazing story tellers in my family!
A couple weeks ago, Mara tagged me with 7 Things – so here goes!
1. My Most Beautiful Post.
This was a tough one to pick, but I chose this post because its when Tony came home from the hospital after his colon cancer surgery. While he looks so tired in this picture, the look of relief of escaping his noisy hosptial room is written all over his face.
2. My Most Popular Post.
Hands down my Buffalo Chicken Chili is my most popular post. It’s had 30,000 page views since I posted it in February 2010 – most likely because if you google “best buffalo chicken chili” it’s the number one recipe to pop up. 😀
3. My most controversial post.
I was poking fun of myself about my lack of swimming skillz and called myself a retarded shining star, which I do apologize if I offended anyone – it wasn’t my intention at all.
4. My Most Helpful Post
I hope I have at least helped some people get over the fear of making homemade pizza dough and yeast breads. While a bit time consuming, it’s well worth the effort.
5. A post whose success surprised me.
This post about “you can’t eat that” garnered 73 comments, the most comments on a non-giveaway post. I was just really pissed that a former co-worker (who was not the least bit healthy) was trying to tell me what I could or couldn’t. It was also the post where I decided Weight Watchers was going to be my plan to get to my goal weight.
6. A post that didn’t get the attention it deserved.
Alright, long time readers will know that I love pizza, ruebens and sauerkraut. So when I made a reuben pizza using rye flour and caraway seeds, I was in heaven!
7. The Post I am Most Proud Of.
That’s a tough one, but I have to go with being a tiny part of The Great Fundraising Act. I was happy that my salsa package sold for $100! Thanks again Katie for being the highest bidder! 😀
If you’ve made it down this far, I’ll leave you with a small giveaway – as I will most likely hit 600,000 pageviews while I am gone. Just 3 months ago I hit half a million!
We all know I am food magazine whore. Yep, I said it, not ashamed of it one bit. Leave a comment telling me what your favorite magazine is – doesn’t even have to be food related! 😀 Up for grabs are three magazine subscriptions.
I love Cooking Light – its hands down my favorite food magazine. I love the variety, the writing, the recipes aren’t overly complicated.
I love the Food Network star magazine because it has pictures of every recipe. I need to see pictures in order to try a recipe – and while there are some not so healthy recipes, it’s still worth it for the food porn alone.
This is what I call my “sophisticated” food magazine. It’s brilliantly written, and I find the editor-in-chief James Oseland hilarious when he uses the word “unctuous” to describe meals on Top Chef Masters.
I think my photography skills have improved too – when looking through old posts I found this picture:
Um, I think this picture is just a tad better!
So good luck my fellow food magazine whores – hope you have a wonderful week and I’ll see you on the 19th!
I am so glad you enjoyed your vacation! And hey, sometimes you just need to splurge.
It is so nice that all your family got together. Glad you enjoyed yourself!!
Hope you’re having a fabulous vacation!!!
Cooking Light is my favorite cooking magazine.
Miss you Vat! Hope you are having a FANTASTIC Vacation!!!
Love magazines….hard to pick a favorite but I think lately it has been MORE. I used to read People or US – til it got to where I dont know any of the stars/reality stars they have in the articles!!!
Hope you’re having a wonderful time!
My favorite magazine is Southern Living, and the only one I subscribe to!
Have a fun vacay, Biz! 🙂
I love America’s Test Kitchen. They lack the colorful glossy pictures, but their recipes are solid.
Have a great vacation!
Thanks for sharing! I also got tagged in one of these.
Crazy when I look back at old food photos. My pics look way better than before. 🙂
Have a fun, relaxing vacation! My favorite mag is the Food Network magazine!
Good for you for taking some time off!! Hope you enjoy your vacation!!
I love Women’s Health! And all cooking/food mags 😉
Loved seeing your favorite posts! Have a fun time off!
Enjoy your time away! Love that you’re breaking – you rock!
These posts are fun – I remember many and of course am a HUGE fan of that chili – your most popular post! 🙂
i remember a lot of those posts! this was fun, i do love that reuben pizza! enjoy your week off, party time!!
giving that reuben pizza some more attention it deserved – im really intrigued with the idea of using caraway seeds too <3 <3
xoxo
ps. ENJOY VACATION TIME !!!!!
have a great vacation !!!! i also am a magazine whore !!! i get quite a few–but not the ones being offered for this contest. my favorite at this time is ALL YOU.
Have a great vacation! I love seeing how people’s photos improve. It gives me hope that maybe one day mine can too 🙂
Enjoy your vacation….my fav magazine is probably Food Network or Real Simple
Have a fun vacation, Biz! And don’t you dare come back without some vacation food porn. 🙂
Your pictures are getting better all the time, you could be taking photos for food magazines.
Enjoy vacation!!! You deserve a break, wow!! 30,000 page views on Buffalo Chicken Chili!? WOW! Well, it is FABULOUS 🙂
I love Cooking Light, of course…favorite for sure!
I love the photography photo: then and now! Isn’t fun to see how far we’ve come as bloggers 🙂
Love you Biz!! Have a great vacation!
Favorite mag…I think it’s Everyday Food b/c it’s small enough to fit in my purse so I have something to read when waiting in line at the grocery store, or when refilling our 5 gallon water bottles!
Have a wonderful vacation 🙂
Have a great time! I love magazines…Cooking Light, Food Network, Whole Living…and this was a neat post!
Hope you have a wonderful vacation week!!! We are headed to the beach next week for vacation too so I’ll be joinin’ ya in some serious relaxation 🙂
Have a great vacation and know that you will be sorely missed!! I will have “biz” withdrawals for the next week. Have fun and make some great memories.
I to am a magazine whore. I probably get around 10-15 monthly. As far as cooking, I love Food Network Magazine and Cooking Light.
See you in a week!!
well you do deserve a vacation, i look forward to your emails daily:( enjoy..oh hell no vacation, eat the pork and yep “f” the exercise. a couple months ago i went to mexico and try to eat healthy and exercise while down there, i regret it now, it was a vacation, mexico is for alcohol and tacos…its a vacation take it…we wont shoot you down if you gain next week, youll get right back on track….ENJOY will miss you….
I like Cooking Light and Taste of the South but my favorite magazine is definitely Everyday Food. It is such a life saver in helping me plan dinners. Although I have to alter the recipes to cut out some calories, it does give nutritional data for each recipe.
Have a good vacation! My favorite magazine is Runner’s World, although sometimes I love to read a good trashy magazine (Us Weekly, anyone?).
Have a wonderful trip!!!
Enjoy a much needed vacation 🙂 I too am a magazine whore 🙂 Personally I love Cooking Light because I can always find amazing recipes.
I like to pick up Family Circle at the grocery store because I can read snippets of it at a time and it is the least expensive splurge for me! Although I’ve always enjoyed Cooking Light and Self, too.
Enjoy your blogging vacation, Biz! I will miss you! You deserve some time off to have fun and relax. “see” you soon!
Have fun, just checking to see if this is working.
Have fun, just checking to see if this post is working!
Have a fantastic vacation- I will misssssssss you!
Have an awesome vacation!! My favorite magazine is Shape or Fitness…so I would love some food ones to balance them out 😉
Enjoy your vacation – if you see this comment before you’re unplugged, I have a Stonyfield Activia giveaway going on right now! 🙂
Have a wonderful trip – I’m glad you’re unplugging. Relax, enjoy and of course, we’ll be here when you get back! 🙂
Have a great vacation! My favorite magazine right now is Taste of Home.
Have a wonderful time! I will miss you. I like Cooking Light best, but always buy Food Network too. I LOVE looking at food pics. It makes me happy.
My favorite magazine is Fine Cooking, and I love Cooking Light too! 🙂
my fave magazine is probably real simple. since the first day it came out!
Have fun unplugging and on vacation! Oh, I’d love a vacation right about now!
My fave foodie mags (I’m a whore too) are between Food Network and Taste of Home. But, I read them all!
I love Cook’s Illustrated because everything turns out fabulous. I have so many of their recipes in my repitoire.
have a great vacation! you should do a little exercise and get your pork bbq on at the same time 🙂
my favorite magazine right now…real simple i guess. i just love looking through every page!
My current favorite magazine is “Health”. It always has good tips and mouth watering recipes.
Have a nice vacation with the ladies in your life! 🙂
Have a lovely vacation Biz! and have some BBQ…but round it out with lots of veggies..ok? lol
I will raise my hand and proclaim I too, am a food magazine whore! My favs are cooking light and taste of home. I take magazines in the doctors office, and start from the back, so I can read the recipes first! haha
My favorites are Real Simple, Cooking Light & Shape, but sometimes I have a tough time keeping up with them or remembering where I saw something so I love the online versions too.
Have a great vacation!!
Biz, have an AWESOME vacation! Relax!! I’m a recovering magazine addict. But I do still love Everyday Food.
I hope you have a great time on vacation. It’s good to unplug and get away from the gadgets once in a while and family time is the best way to be entertained (or driven crazy).
I’d have to say my favorite magazine is Shape. I always go straight for the “Success Stories” because since the magazine came out over 20 years ago I always wanted to be one.
Have fun!
Unplug to recharge. It always feels good to disconnect from the word and focus on everyone in the room. Enjoy!
My favorite magazine is ‘Real Simple.’ It has a great food section, but also focuses on being anal-retentively organized (which makes me fake ocd siiiing, lol). I have a couple of the cooking light cookbooks, and I love them- just haven’t picked up the magazine yet.
Have a great week off! I just recently began receiving your blogs and LOVE them! I have made two recipes from them and they were big hits. They foods were Stuffed Peppers with the 3 meats (tastes like pizza!), and the grown up Spaghettios (Met with HUGE success!). I have printed out the Buffalo Chicken Chili recipe and plan to make it this weekend. I’m sure it will be yummy as well.
My favorite magazine is “The Food Network”. I actually purchased it for the first time a few weeks ago after I began receiving your blog. You inspired me to break out of my cooking doldrums and try new stuff! THANK YOU! <3
My favorite magazine is the Food Network Magazine!! Im not gonna lie, I LOVE trashy entertainment gossip magazines too.
Have a WONDERFUL vacation!!! And enjoy being “disconnected!” 🙂
I used to read Cooking Light and really enjoyed it. But I stopped all magazines a while ago as I just never seemed to get to them (I blame the toddler!). Now as the toddler is getting a bit older, I’m looking forward to getting into reading magazines on a regular basis again. I’ll have to check out your other favorites!
My big secret is that I love People. Not real people. The magazine. My mom says I get it from my grandmother who probably single handedly kept the National Enquirer in business!
Have fun on that vacation – we’ll be here when you get back!
“Not real people” nearly made me spew my latte all over my monitor!
Have a good time! My favorite magazine for recipes in the Food Network Magazine
Have a great vacay Biz! Enjoy the family time 😀
Have a wonderful vacation!
I’m a food magazine whore too…Cooking Light is a must have and I agree that the Food Network Magazine is good for food porn. I’ve never read the other one! My “sophisticated” magazine is Cook’s Illustrated. I feel like a real cook when I read that one 🙂
I can’t believe you are going to be in MY state and :sniff, sniff: I am too far away to stalk you. giggle but, as I said – I will be waving like crazy tomorrow. 🙂
My pictures look like your old pics – yours [now] are amazing. You know how much I love your food pics. Can’t wait for the pics from vacation.
My favorite magazine used to be “Taste of Home” – but they hired a new food stylist a few years back and they lost me as a subscriber because the food looked half cooked most of the time. It was pretty entertaining to laugh at the pics’, but it got old after a while. I am a huge fan of “Vanity Fair” now after P/D gave me a subscription a few years ago.
Have a great vaca, Biz!! I’m leaving on vacation today, too!!!!! (oh, and I’m not packed yet – oops)
Have a wonderful vacation, Biz!
My fave food mag is Cooking Light also!