Imagine my surprise when I opened my email last Friday morning and discovered that the Addictive Blogger Award had been bestowed upon Salt and Serenity. So exciting! I must admit that sometimes when I am sitting at my computer, typing away, I wonder, if there is anyone out there even reading this stuff? So, it is quite rewarding to know that someone is out there reading what I have so carefully crafted and that some readers even find me addictive! I suppose it is a basic human need to want to feel validated and recognized for what we do.

A great big thank you to the talented blogger behind at350degrees for the award! I do not know her name, but I can tell you that she is a busy student and still has time and a great big passion for baking. It’s inspiring! Check out her blog. It’s lovely!

My award comes with a few rules:

• Thank the person awarding you
• Share a little about why you blog and how the journey started
• Paste the blog award on your page
• Nominate 10 other bloggers you feel deserve the award

I actually stumbled into blogging by accident. I never intended to be a blogger. In the spring of 2009, I was surfing the net, doing some research for a food column I was writing  for our local newspaper, when I came across a wonderful food blog called Pinch My Salt , by Nicole Hamaker.  Nicole was about to embark on an exciting journey, baking her way through Peter Reinhart’s book, “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice”, one recipe at a time.  She was looking for company.

The next thing I knew, I was e-mailing Nicole to tell her to count me in.  I am not ordinarily a goal oriented person and the thought of joining any group usually makes me shudder, but for some strange reason I was drawn to this challenge.  I have several bread baking books on my cookbook shelf but have never gotten around to baking anything other than challah.  I have always wanted to learn to bake amazing baguettes, Ciabatta bread and other artisan breads but just never got around to it.  It always seemed like such an ordeal.  This was just the kick I needed.

It seemed like a simple exercise.  We would go through the book in alphabetical order and bake one bread each week, for the next 43 weeks, beginning with Anadama Bread and ending with Whole Wheat.  Within 2 weeks there were 216 bread freaks from all over the world, who, just like me, decided that their life would not be complete if they failed to bake their way through this book. Our main way of keeping in touch was through a Google group. We decided to share photos of our finished breads on Flickr.

I baked my first bread (cornmeal molasses bread called Anadama) on May 12 2009.  I logged onto our Google page and under the conversation thread titled, “Post your Anadama Bread links here” I told the group I had made my bread and they could see pictures of it on Flickr.  While on our Google page, I decided to check out what other group members were up to.  I was blown away.  Many of the participants had their own food blogs and told a whole story with photos about their Anadama adventure.

What had I gotten myself into?  These were serious food people with their own web sites.  As I perused some of their blog entries I became somewhat jealous.  I wanted to start a food blog too.  I could do this!  The next day as I baked our second bread I took my camera into the kitchen and shot every step of baking “Artos, a Greek Celebration Bread”.  By the end of the day I was sweating and my camera was covered in flour.  But I was so proud.  That night I began researching blogs and within 48 hours I had my very own blog set up with my first post, complete with photos.

I must admit, that when I told my children what I was doing, they mocked me and told me to “get a life.” I quickly shut them up with homemade bagels, cinnamon buns, kaiser buns,  and 40 other wonderful breads.

I actually finished the challenge in July 2010 and surprisingly, I came to love the writing and photography almost as much as the baking. I found that blogging was an amazing outlet for my creative energy. I love the generosity and camaraderie of food bloggers. They are, by and large, a wonderful and supportive group of people. After the challenge was done, I decided to continue blogging and see where it would take me. It has now been over three years and I think that my writing and photography skills have improved and I learn so much from other bloggers. I continue to gather more followers each day and am up to over 459 followers at this point. I am grateful for those who subscribe to my blog and want to hear what I have to say.

In the spirit of food blogger generosity, here are 10 food blogs that I think deserve the Addictive Blog Award. Check them out, and I think you’ll agree that they are indeed addictive!

Aprons and Sneakers, A Healthy Life For Me, Biscuits and Bobbins, Bob Vivant, Bravetart, Dash and Bella, Emmy Cooks, Raspberri Cupcakes, The Patterned Plate, The Usual Bliss.