Blog Bites #1: Cookers

Monthly Blog Patrol, fondly known as MBP, was one of my favorite blog events. The idea was to choose a theme each month and make a recipe using another food blog as the inspiration. Coffee of The Spice Cafe started this event, and there were many fun rounds, including One Pot Wonders, Say Cheese and Street Food. I myself hosted one edition here, Less is More, for recipes using 5 or fewer ingredients.

But I don't think this event is still going on, and Coffee seems to be taking a break from the food blog world. So using her event as the inspiration, I'm starting a similar event right here on One Hot Stove.

I'm calling it Cook the Blog Blog Bites (minutes after posting this, I changed the name of the event). The idea is simple: each month, we will have a fresh theme. Look around your favorite blogs, scroll through your bookmarks and find a recipe (or two, or several) that fit the theme. Try them out and report your results.

Some of the most successful dishes I make have come not from cookbooks or celebrity chefs, but from my fellow bloggers and my hope is that this event will showcase that spirit of generosity with which we share our best recipes and secrets with each other.

On to the first edition...

Blog Bites #1: Cookers

Pressure cookers

Rice cookers

Slow cookers

Many of us own one or more of these appliances. My own experience is that I often own something but don't know all that the appliance is capable of and don't use it to the fullest. Each of these appliances is designed as a time-saver, so I bet we would all benefit by discovering some new recipes to make. So this month, find a recipe from another food blog that uses one of these appliances and try it out. I have a vested interest in this theme, because I just bought a rice cooker this morning and I am excited to test drive it :D

If you don't own any of these appliances, I would seriously ask you to consider purchasing a pressure cooker; it saves so much time and fuel. But I understand this is a limitation of this theme, and I promise the next theme won't need any special appliances.

The Rules

1. From now until March 25, try a recipe from another food blog (not a recipe website, not a cookbook, but a blog) that fits the theme of the month, i.e., uses any of these common kitchen appliances: pressure cooker, rice cooker or slow cooker. In your post, feel free to write about the brand of your appliance, what you like and don't like about it, link to recipes you have already posted using that cooker and any tips you have for using it. You can send in as many entries as you like.

2. Write a post telling us about the recipe you tried (with a link to the recipe on the other blog), a picture of your dish (preferably right in the cooker you used) and a link to this announcement.

3. Please do not copy recipes word for word from another blog- that would be very wrong. If you want to note the recipe on your blog, re-write it in your own words, with whatever modifications you made to it. Or just give us the link to the original so we can find the recipe there.

4. Send me a link to your post, either by leaving a comment on this post, or using the contact form. I don't a picture or any other information, just the URL of your entry.

Blog Bites will have a running round-up. Look at the top of the right side-bar and click that link to see new entries popping up all month as they are posted. On March 26th, I will post a final round-up organizing the entries properly and hopefully, making it a resource for people looking for new ways to use their pressure cookers, rice cookers and slow cookers.

If you have ideas for themes for the months coming up, leave a comment. With so many blog events, many themes have been done over and over, so I am trying to think of new and interesting themes that will get y'all cooking.

I hope many of the food bloggers will participate- thank you and let me know if there are any questions.