Top five blogs on food

Because so many of you are passionate about cooking, this week I’d like to introduce you to some of my personal favourite blogs on food.

These websites each offer different ideas for mealtimes whether you’re looking for a vegetarian food blog, an Italian food blog, or somewhere to eat out. So have a look and you might be inspired to try something new for dinner tonight!

1. The graphic foodie - a blog about food, family stories and foodie design, written by a Brighton based graphic designer with Italian roots who is: “passionate (read argumentative) about everything from design, squirrels, Fiat 500's and in particular food.” The blog features restaurants, reviews and recipes (the three Rs), as well as food related design. I was most amused to find a recipe for Bum – which looks far more appealing than its name sounds. It transpired to be a sweet sheep's milk cheesecake, with sambuca-soaked sultanas, served with lemon rosemary syrup and warm walnut biscotti.
2. The Good Mood Food blog - Donal Skehan, author of the Good Mood Food blog, has been coined Ireland’s answer to Jamie Oliver. Skehan teams up his love for photography and cooking to great effect, and has recently published his first cookbook with Mercier Press.  The book is called "Good Mood Food" and is full of healthy home cooking. Recipes include everything from strawberry daiquiris to crunchy sticky banoffee pie.  I’m doing a very bad job of describing Donal’s healthy recipes but these just looked so delicious!
3. The British Larder - I love this blog (already featured in our Pancake Day post), it offers culinary inspiration from professional chef and self-confessed food fanatic, Madalene. She posts a variety of stunning tried and tested recipes from soup to shellfish, and everything in between. Here, you’ll find a wealth of ideas for food from Madalene’s 15 years of cooking experience.
4. Bittersweet – a personal journey through the intrinsics of vegan cookery. Winner of the Veg Bloggy awards 08 and Food Blog awards 07 and scribed by the author of “My Sweet Vegan” cook book, this extreme vegetarian food blog brings excitement to vegan cookery. Even a self-confessed carnivore like me could be tempted to try out some of these recipes. Check out the post from Monday 21st Feb for a free scrumptious-looking desktop background.
5. Foodari - Gone are the days of piles of cookbooks, the new way to find a recipe is online. Foodari’s recipe search facility helps you to find your chosen dish, search by ingredient if you are looking for inspiration, and allows you to upload your own recipes in the forum.  So you can share your signature dish with the world and reap the benefits of talent amateur chefs everywhere.

So those are my top five websites which blog on food – what are yours?