Room for Dessert - Food Blog

If you visited the blog lately and saw that it looks a bit (or a lot) different, don’t worry, I’m not trying to mess with you guys :). Room for Dessert is looking for a new look, and it’s hard for me to pick one of the so many available.
So please bare with me for a little longer, until I can finally decide. Hope it will be soon…
You are more than welcome to leave a comment and suggest any theme that you know, love, and think will be suitable here.

Thanks!

This is an appeal on behalf of a group of food bloggers who are friends of Briana Brownlow @ Figs With Bri.

Bri was diagnosed with breast cancer two and half years ago. A mastectomy, chemotherapy and two years of relatively good health later, the cancer is back. It has metastasized to other parts of her body. At the age of 15, Bri lost her 41-year old mother to the disease. Now, she’s waging her own war against breast cancer. More about it here.

She is going through intensive chemo and other treatments and needs to focus single-mindedly on healing and finding what treatment works best for her. Her health insurance, unfortunately, does not cover holistic alternatives which she would like to try. Bri and her husband Marc have enough on their plates right now in addition to worrying about her medical bills.

The team organising the JUNE edition of CLICK at Jugalbandi has organised a fundraiser to help Bri and her family meet her out-of-pocket medical costs for ONE YEAR.

CLICK is a monthly theme-based photography contest hosted by Jugalbandi. This month’s theme is: YELLOW for Bri

Yellow is the colour of hope. Through the work of the LiveStrong Foundation, it has also come to signify the fight against cancer.

The entries can be viewed HERE. The deadline for entries is June 30, 2008. The fundraiser will extend until July 15, 2008.

The target amount is 12,000 U.S. dollars. We appeal to our fellow bloggers and readers to help us achieve this. Bri deserves a chance to explore all options, even if her insurance company thinks otherwise.

There’s a raffle with exciting prizes on offer. After viewing the list, you may make your donation HERE or at the Chip-In button on any participating site.

Your donation can be made securely through credit card or Pay Pal and goes directly to Bri’s account.

This month’s photo contest also has some prizes. Details HERE.

You can support this campaign by donating to the fundraiser, by participating in CLICK: the photo event, and by publicising this campaign.

Award! My little blog won an award. Oh my GOD, even 2 awards! Can you believe?!
When one starts a food blog, it’s really hard for him to believe that people, people he doesn’t know and actually feel committed to read it, are going to. At least these were my thoughts as I started this blog. Then came the first visits from people I didn’t know, boy was I happy to see that on the site’s statistics! I can’t even begin to tell you how the first comment threw me up the roof with joy! And now these 2 awards - true happiness!

Actually, I got them quite a long time ago, and I’m passing them on only now because of major lack of time. So first of all thanks a lot, to the 2 wonderful bloggers that felt that my blog deserves them - it made me so so happy!

A month and a half ago, dear Manuela from “Baking History” gave me the “You make my day” award - that really made MY day! Thanks a lot my dear, and I’m so sorry for passing this along just now. I’m passing it along to:

- Mad Baker - Karen lives in Singapore, has a great passion for macarons, and makes one of the most beautiful macarons I’ve ever seen. Her photos are amazing as well! Because she sells her baked goods, though, recipes are almost never present in her posts, so unfortunately it’s a feast for the eyes that can’t be recreated, but it’s a great sight, nonetheless.
- Joy the Baker - She’s a very talented pastry chef, whose blog I read regularly. I absolutely adore her writing, her photos are amazing and everything she makes looks just delicious! She even once made an amazing podcast - a live video of her making a cheese and apple cake!
- Tartelette - She’s French and lives in the US, a very talented baker and she’s been blogging since 2005! I love to read her stories, and more than that, love to see that accurate finishing touch she leaves on every product of hers.
- Canelle et Vanille - Aran lives in Florida, and comes from a family of many pastry chefs, and is a pastry chef herself. On her blog you can find gorgeous photos and wonderful mouth watering creations, that will make you wanna bite right into your screen.
- Cherrapeno - Nicisme, Nicisme… I think I fell in love instantly with her wonderful blog, that’s so beautifully and cleanly designed! And more important than that - all she makes looks so wonderful, makes me want to recreate instantly. Every time a new post is uploaded, it puts a smile on my face and makes my tummy crave

Nicisme is also the one that passed the E for Excellence award to me. Thanks, Nic, I was so thrilled to receive this from you! I’m passing it along to:

- Bron Marshall - Bron’s blog is simply amazing! The simplicity of the site’s design, along with the amazing photos, creative dishes and recipes that sound so good, you almost add all of them to your “to make” list - all these make her blog truly excellent in my (and in many other surfers) book.
- Make Life Sweeter - Linda lives in the Netherlands, and in the past she lived in Israel for a while, and so she has a warm corner in her heart for our country, and visits some Israeli food blogs. I love her blog so much, I always love her choices of recipes, great platings and servings for the food she makes, and  of course - very tempting photos!
- Joy the Baker - I’ve put Joy’s blog in both lists, because she indeed makes my day, but her blog is also excellent from every point of view!
- Cherrapeno - Same thing with Nicisme, that received many awards from many bloggers in the relatively short time she’s been blogging! Absolutely wonderful blog you’ve got there, Nic!
- My Mom’s Recipes and More - Chanit is a very talented Israeli baker and cook. Her blog has many many readers (I know, because when she linked to my blog in her “recommended new blogs” corner, the visits to my blog were almost doubled ). Chanit tries (and succeeds) to recreate childhood tastes, from her grandmother’s and mother’s kitchen, a thing that really makes me relate to her blog, other than it being a very cozy and invinting one - with the great recipes the chooses to make.
- Baking History - Manuela has a wonderful theme for her blog, a truly wonderful idea - she recreates historical dishes, for example she once baked a Lincoln Cake, following a recipe reated in 1865 to commemorate USA’s President A. Lincoln. How cool is that?! A lot of yummy traditional Jewish food can be found there as well, delightful photos and great recipes all in all.
- Maya’s World - It’s a Romanian food blog, Maya puts a lot of effort into taking very detailed photos of all the steps that make the complete dish. She makes traditional Romanian food, as well as modern food from all over the world. Great choice of recipes, wonderful photos - her blog has all the elements that make an excellent food blog.
- Bazek Alim - This is an Israeli food blog, written by Maya also (a different one, though ). Maya is a web designer, and that definitely shows in her beautiful site, in the gorgeous food styling she makes, and also in her stunning photos, that have wonderful compositions. Her recipes always have a price tag - how much will cost you to make the dish, cute added bonus to a wonderful blog, and usually are very easy to make, and very well explained. I’ve tried her chocolate fondants, they came out sooo good!

Manuela and Nic, thanks a lot for the awards, and mainly for thinking that my little blog is worth it!

Dear readers,
I’m really sorry for my absence this past week. Our house caught fire and burnt last Thursday night. It happened at 00:30 the night between Thursday and Friday, while Avi was in Chicago on a business trip. I was sitting at the computer, when I suddenly heard a weird little noise. I went to check where it came from, and when I saw nothing out of the ordinary, I went back to the computer. A few seconds later, I smelled an odd smell, looked at the living room, terrified to find out that it was all wrapped in a cloud of white fog. It didn’t take long for the white fog to turn into black smoke that covered all the living room, so I immediately called the fire men and evacuated the neighbours out of the building.
As it turned out later, the cause of the fire was our refrigerator, or more particularly its control panel.
In the end our house was declared as “total loss” by the insurance company, but I thank God that me and all of the other neighbours are all right, and also for the fact that we had insurance.
Until we find a new home I guess I’ll be writing here a bit less, but I’ll do my best to continue writing as much as I can, since I really miss baking SO much!

Hi everyone, and you’re most welcome!

I have to admit that if you’ve told me a year ago that today I’d be opening a food blog, then I guess I’d had told you that you must be joking (to put it mildly :). Don’t get me wrong, I love to share, but when it comes to food, I only now understand how much!
So, about an year ago, being in an unfortunate and long illness vacation from work, I discovered the great world of baking. It started with food networks and forums that I’ve began reading, just to learn a few things, you know. So I read and I read, and I read a bit more. Then I’ve witnessed all the mouth-watering photos of the great creations the people on these forums had uploaded, and it made me really want to do it myself. And so I’ve entered the kitchen, and figuratively, never left it :)

Here I’ll be writing about food I prepare, and any interesting insights I might have.
It’s great to have you here!