Welcome To BLOGMANIA !

My Blog is 31 of 123

You’ve arrived at exactly the right time to explore lots of new blogs, all of which, ARE GIVING AWAY A VERY SPECIAL BLOGMANIA GIVEAWAY  (For One Day Only – April 30^th) . 

We’ve done all the work for you. No hunting or surfing. Each blog will have a number and each new blog link will have a number. These numbers will allow you to keep track of which blogs you’ve visited and how many are left to visit. Why not take a moment to make a list of blog numbers  1-123 and check off the blogs as you go.

I know you’ll want to visit as many blogs today as you can. So, if you see something that interests you on any of our participating blogs, why not bookmark that site. Later, when you have more time, you can discover all its fabulous treasures.  

MY GIVEAWAY:

One lucky winner (US and Canada residents only) will receive a sampling of some wonderful foods from my hometown Rochester, NY, including the following:

• Your choice of a package of red or white Zweigles hots to be shipped from NY Style Deli
• Your choice of a pint of Abbotts custard (chocolate, vanilla, black raspberry, or chocolate almond) also shipped from NY Style Deli

Anybody from the Rochester area can tell you how great these two companies are.  When I was in college my friends and I would drive to Rochester (from three hours away!) just for some yummy Abbott's custard!

MY RULES: 
To be entered for this giveaway you only need to do one simple thing: leave a comment on this entry with your email address.  If you would like an additional bonus entry you can Become a Fan of A Dash of Nutmeg on Facebook and then leave a SECOND comment telling me you did it.  To clarify: I'm going to use a randomly-generated number to pick the winner based on the comments so make sure each entry of yours is in a separate comment, otherwise you'll only get one entry.

To give west-coasters time to enter the entry deadline is Saturday, May 1st, 3am EST.

Here are some other blog links to lead you to more loot:

(Blog - 1 – HOST OF BLOGMANIA) Between The Pages

(Blog - 2 – CO-HOST OF BLOGMANIA) The Black Sheep Dances

(Blog - 43 – CO-HOST OF BLOGMANIA) Books, Books Everywhere

(Blog - 6) Ashleyladd

(Blog - 27) Blackberry Jam Café

(Blog - 34) Reading AT The Beach

(Blog - 54) Paper Cut Reviews

(Blog - 90) SMS Book Reviews

(Blog - 111) Deanna’s Tidbits

(Blog - 120) I Sew Cute and Draw Pretty Nifty Also

Check back Monday morning (May 3rd) when I will announce the winner!

Salmon with a Lemon Dill Crab Topping

This Easter I decided to mix things up a little bit and serve salmon instead of ham.  I love ham and all but my volunteer-firefighting fiancee had a bad experience several years ago when he responded to a barn fire at a pig farm and so now he pretty much avoids ham like the plague.  Since this was to be our first time hosting a family holiday meal since we got engaged, not to mention the first big meal at our new place I wanted to come up with something really special, and thus salmon with a lemon dill crab topping was born.  As an added bonus this dish turned out to be super easy!

(Note that the recipe below was enough to serve 8 for dinner.)

Ingredients:

8 salmon fillets

1 package imitation crab meat, flake style

1 cup mayo

1/4 cup lemon juice

3 tbsp dill

salt and pepper

3/4 cup unseasoned breadcrumbs

To start the topping I cut the crab meat up into small pieces.  Since it usually comes very tightly packed it is really easy to basically dice it.  Mix this with the mayo, lemon juice, dill, salt and pepper.  This can be made a day ahead of time and kept in the fridge, which is a good idea if you have time for this because it helps the flavors come together.

When you're ready to cook preheat your oven to 350 and get out a cookie sheet.  If you have a silicon cookie sheet liner or some parchment paper now would be a good time to make use of it.  Lay out the salmon fillets on the cookie sheet next to each other so that there is no space between the fish.  This increases the cooking time a little bit but you can get better coverage with the topping so I think it's worth it.

Next use the spatula to spread the lemon dill crab topping over the salmon, getting as close to the edges as possible.  Sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the top and you're ready for the oven.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, and then put the fish under the broiler for an additional 5 minutes to crisp up the breadcrumbs and give them a nice golden brown color.

So there you have it, a great recipe for salmon on Easter.  Did anybody else eat something other than ham for dinner?

My First Blog Award!

The ever-wonderful Jan at tomatobaby has made me a very happy blogger today by giving me my very first blog award, the sunshine award!

If you haven't yet visited tomatobaby I highly recommend it!  It has a little bit of everything, whether you're looking for a crafty tutorial, a yummy tomato recipe, or you just need a good laugh.

Now, along with the award comes the stipulation that I have to pass it on to some others, so without further ado, here are my Sunshine Award Nominees (in no particular order):

1. Shane at BDGJM - Easily the funniest blog you'll find on the web!
2. Delectable Dining - A great place for more yummy recipes!
3. Kelli at There is no place like home - Recipes and craft tutorials highlighted by some amazing photography.
4. Shamrocks and Shenanigans - More great recipes!
5. Susan at Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy - One of the first blogs that appeared on my blogroll!
6. Cathy at Noble Pig - Great place to learn about wine and pick up some yummy recipes.
7. Brownie Points - Another great food blog; the homemade butter post is one of my faves!
8. Clotilde at Chocolate & Zucchini - Food, French idioms, and pretty awesome desktop wallpaper.
9. Lindsey at Lindsey's Kitchen - Yet another great food blog!
10. Marc at [No Recipes] - Some seriously drool-worthy food here.
11. Stacie at Simply Stacie - Lots of awesome giveaways!
12. Closet of Free Samples - Another great website for giveaways and free stuff!

 Congrats to the winners.  Now here's what you have to do:

•  Put the award logo on your blog or within your post
•  Pass the award to 12-well-deserving bloggers
•  Link the nominees within your post
•  Let them know they received this award by commenting on their blog
•  Share the love and link to the person from whom you received the award

Lonely Chicago Pie - Pi Day 2010

I have finally found the camera so now I can show you my Pi Day 2010 creation, the Lonely Chicago Pie (which I feel I should warn you, is neither lonely nor Chicago-related.  But it is one hell of a yummy pie.)  The recipe for this pie comes from the movie Waitress, starring Keri Russell.  Much of the story takes place in a pie diner and to that end many many wonderful and creative pies are showcased.  

Bloggers Choice Awards, Blogmania, & Other News

Lots of exciting and wonderful things have been happening here in the world of ADON this week! Probably the most exciting thing to me is that A Dash of Nutmeg has been nominated for Best Food Blog in the Blogger's Choice '10 Awards! If you want to show your support for ADON voting is still open and you can vote for the blog here (you have to join the site, but it's free.):

Among the other excitement, ADON was approved for membership in the Foodie Blogroll, a community of fellow food-bloggers like myself. There's a nifty widget on the right sidebar of the blog now that you can use to get to other foodie blogs. In honor of the membership in the Foodie Blogroll I also gave the page a bit of a face lift. I was going to pay somebody else to do it for me but then I remembered my degree in computer science and knew I'd never live it down so I googled up some nice tutorials. So what do you think? (Sidenote: If you're looking for a new font to dress up your blog I highly recommend the free fonts here. I really had a hard time choosing.)

The Facebook fan page grew to over 50 fans strong this week and I want to thank each and every one of my fans/readers/followers. It's you and your comments that keep this blog going most days! And a big shout-out goes to my friend Shane who has been my biggest supporter since day one. If you haven't done so already you should all go check out his humor blog, BDGJM. (The link is to the left in the Blogroll section.) There has not been one blog of his that hasn't made me bust up laughing.

Lastly (but not least-ly), I have signed up to participate in this Spring's Blogmania event. Here's some more info from the event's organizer, Lynda Coker:

Coming - April 30, 2010

WOW! Aren’t you the lucky one! You’ve arrived at exactly the right time to explore lots of new blogs, all of which ARE GIVING AWAY A VERY SPECIAL BLOGMANIA GIVEAWAY (For One Day Only).

You literally have the chance to win hundreds of prizes. We’ve done all the work for you. No hunting or surfing for just the right blogs. Every blog you visit will have more links for you to follow, all of them with a special BLOGMANIA giveaway and just waiting for you to drop by.

Each blog will have a number like this (25 0f 48) and each new blog link will have a number. These numbers will allow you to keep track of which blogs you’ve visited and how many are left to visit. Now, really, isn’t this the easiest thing ever! AND SO MUCH FUN…

I know you’ll want to visit as many blogs today as you can. So, if you see something that interests you on any of our participating blogs, why not bookmark their site. Later, when you have more time, you can discover all its fabulous treasures.

Remember! The special Blogmania prizes are only available for one day, April 30th. The number of prizes you could win is only limited by the NUMBER of blogs you visit.

So I think that just about wraps up all of the wonderful excitement going on around here. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about the food. Future-Mr-ADON and myself are still trying to free ourselves from the piles of boxes all over our apartment from our recent move and the camera remains missing. I promise to find it this weekend sometime and you'll just get two blogs next week!