I won!

This is excting.

Since my blogging habit has been advancing over the last couple of months, I have found a lot of like-minded people out there who are passionate about food and love to share with others. I feel like I am part of a community that is fun and full of interesting people who are doing amazing things in their kitchens all over the country.

One of these people is Claudia who writes the fabulous blog called 'cook eat fret' (see favorites at right). I salivate regularly over her dishes, her professional grade photographs and love her sense of humour. So when she decided to make 'mole negro oaxaqueno' a couple of weeks ago (mole is sooooo hard and soooo time consuming and for that reason, something I've never undertaken), I was truly excited and impressed and it reconfirmed my sense that we really are kindred spirits. I, too, would undertake something of similar proportions (she wreaked havoc on her kitchen and it took her 9 hours!) just to say I could do it.

So when she decided to hold a contest for her readers to go along with her beautiful mole post, I was game. I commented on that post and in doing so, entered to win all of the ingredients to make the same dish (there are many ingredients), provided by Claudia. It was a random number generator that pulled the winning comment. I never thought I'd win because I never win anything. So, imagine my delight when I returned to cook eat fret a few days later and found out I HAD WON!!

This was great news: I had finally won a contest, and now I would get to (have to?) make mole negro oaxaqueno! I am ready! Ready at the first opportunity to spend a day in the kitchen, roasting and crushing chiles by hand and hoping that it turns out and makes my Mexican grandmother proud. I wish she were here to see it. Once I asked her how to make mole in my innocent youth, long before I embarked on my cooking adventures, and she relpied simply "Forget about it."

The coolest part about this whole mole thing is that Claudia came to my work today to drop off the prize and we got to meet finally. I read her all the time, she reads my little blog here, and it was so fun to meet in person. It's funny how you feel almost like you know someone from reading their blog. And then when you get to meet them in person it's almost like they're famous. That's how it felt. Like a little celebrity moment. Like earlier in the week when Jack White of the White Stripes (a regular at the place where I work) came up to the counter and ordered MY pastries! And then ate them! All!! So cool...Thanks, Jack and Claudia.