Blog Crush: Deb from Smitten Kitchen

If you're ever looking for a popular, successful, and beautiful food blog to follow, I think most people will recommend the same blog. Like lifestyle blogs (is that what this is?!?), food blogs are a dime a dozen, and they're not all so pretty. But one of the best is Smitten Kitchen, written by a detail oriented home cooking genius named Deb. 

An example of the beautiful photography on Smitten Kitchen. 

My book club has developed a habit of making Smitten Kitchen recipes for most of our book club get togethers, and when we get together it's pretty common to hear someone say, "oh, did you try the recipe she posted last week?" Her sweet recipes are always flawless, and savory treats are not half bad either. Doesn't the salad above look perfect? 

A few weekends ago I was walking past The Book Cellar, a charming independent book store in my neighborhood, and a sign in the window caught my eye. Deb was coming to the Book Cellar with the newly released Smitten Kitchen cookbook! She was going to be signing the book and doing a little meet and greet, and I immediately set to emailing my friends and changing my work schedule so I could attend. One of my favorite bloggers ending up a few blocks from my condo was something I just couldn't skip!

I guess I wasn't alone, though. The crowd that gathered was pretty insane! We got there about 30 minutes before the signing was scheduled to begin, and got in line to get our books. After about a half hour, we had purchased the books, and had our letters that assigned us to a slot for getting the book signed. We were letter P, which was a looooong way from the beginning!  So, what do you think we did?

We went for a drink!  Actually, first we went for a pastry and some coffee, and sat outside for a while. But as we saw the slllllooooooowwwww pace of the line, we decided we had more time to kill. A couple of our husbands were hanging out at a bar across the street, so we decided to join them for a while. While it did take forever to actually get our books signed, I really enjoyed spending a Sunday afternoon just relaxing and hanging out with some good friends! It was a good excuse to just slow down and catch up on our lives, and the guys got to talk for hours about guitars and other music-related topics. So everyone was happy!

Finally, it was our turn. Deb was so friendly and gracious, even though she'd already been signing books for a couple hours. Her book is full of beautiful pictures and approachable, appealing recipes, and I'm excited to dig into it. At the moment Joe's stashed it out of my reach, since it's technically a Christmas present for me!  I can't wait to try some of the recipes. If they're anything like her lovely blog, I know I'll enjoy the results. Congratulations on your success, Deb!