I can’t believe we did it.

No…I can’t believe that Diane and I were in Mexico 6 weeks ago at Rancho La Puerta, brainstormed an idea to create Food Blog Forum and kaBLAM!

We built it, thanks to the genius work of Todd and Scott (each of our better halves).

Food Blog Forum is just that…a forum dedicated to food bloggers. It’s a site where we can all help each other, discuss hot issues and read expert advice. It’s where we are going to spill all of our secret tricks to food photography, lighting, monetization, social media and whatever else we can think of!

Oh, and we’re giving away one of these babies!:

Have I interested you yet!?

But WAIT!!! There’s more!

We’re comin’ to Los Angeles and hosting a Food Blog Forum Seminar! Won’t you come?

When I first heard on Twitter that I was named one of the 10 Hottest Women in Food by SlashFood, I seriously had to double-check the URL to make sure it wasn’t a spoof site, because you all know what happens when misspell a website name and end up in pornville.

Well, it was legit, and even after an hour, nobody on Twitter shouted “you’ve been punk’d!” Though if I really had really been punk’d, more than likely the person responsible would be missing a few teeth today.

The difficult part of all this is that now I really have to live up to the title…and it means that maybe being photographed in my neon hair rollers isn’t a good idea.

Hmmm…..

And I should stop slapping my head on Wonder Woman’s body.

I really am taking this honor very seriously, and have started off this week with a striptease class with 18 girlfriends at Rancho La Puerta.

Rancho La Puerta is known as one of the premier health and fitness spas in the world, and one of my biggest concerns about spending an entire week here was the fact that they serve a primarily vegetarian diet. No meat, almost no alcohol and no junk food.

Could I go a whole week without steak? bacon? wine? potato chips? Could I survive on just lettuce, sprouts and beans?

The first couple of days, the withdrawal symptoms became almost unbearable. I tweeted for help. I even texted Diane, who was to arrive the next evening to sneak in a stash of contraband chips and booze.

So, in our strip tease class, our instructor told us to imagine a guy sitting in the chair as she led us in sexylicious moves: sashaying our hips, flipping our hair, throwing an attitude, rubbing and teasing with our body parts. All for the imaginary friend sitting in the chair.

This is all I could think about:

and this:

Oh, and no I wasn’t joking about Diane smuggling in the goods. She came through. God, I love this woman. She arrived at 7pm last night with this:

I guess if this is what sexy is all about – I AM ALL FOR IT!!

17.2 million American children face hunger each year.

If you break that down, that’s almost 1 in 4 kids.

As many of you know, one of my favorite charities is Share Our Strength, an organization dedicated to ending childhood hunger in America. This month, I’m so honored to have partnered with Quaker Oatmeal and Goodbite, along with several other bloggers, to bring you a fundraiser that will raise up to $25,000 for Share Our Strength.

$25,000 = 75,000 meals.

It’s simple. There’s no contest, no voting….just a few clicks on your part.

Head to Quaker’s Create Your Day website and in just a few clicks, create your own oatmeal flavor combination. Every oatmeal creation earns Share Our Strength $1.00.

Will you please take just a few seconds to help us earn a dollar?

Here’s my oatmeal creation:

This commercial is so brilliant, I just had to share….

HA! Commercial got you in the middle didn’t it? Read more about how John Nolan created a robotic mouse for the film.

Well, while we’re on the subject of food commercials, here’s the clip that most influenced my behavior while in an intoxicated state. Do you how many times I’ve said, “WASSSAAAAAAAAAABI” with my tongue dangling out? No wonder why I was single for so long.

What’s your favorite food commercial?

Where was David when we took this photo? He’s nowhere to be found!

By now, you’re all probably sick of hearing about our fantab time at the Club Med Food Blogger Camp. That’s what I get for waiting until this long to post about it! The good thing is that I can be lazy and just link to everyone else’s post and say, “See? That’s what we did!”

But before you roll your eyes and think that you cannot stand reading another post of us bragging about the sun, sand, surf and hot trapeze instructors, I want you to take a little peek at a video that White On Rice Couple have created.

During first 4 days of “camp”, while the rest of us were lounging, gorging and enjoying various alcoholic bevs, Diane and Todd were very busy working. But you couldn’t really tell that they were working. I call it stealth photography. Each of them would lug a beach bag the size of a microwave oven, bulging at the seams, being filled with “stuff” that I thought was beach gear. But nope. Two digital SLRs, a lens as long as an elephant’s trunk, camcorder, tripod, monopod and 2 laptops.

They were able to catch every single moment that mattered.

Lesson learned: never try to do the zumba after 3 glasses of wine while stealth photography is going on. I almost fell in the pool doing that last pelvic thrust.

A big thanks to Club Med for having us; David for being my co-host for the Food Blogger Camp and Matt for pitching in to help; Elise for her sunny friendship; Michael and Donna Ruhlman for their wisdom; Dianne for sensualizing corn pops; Adam for letting my kids tattoo the only available spot left on his body and Diane/Todd for creating a video that we’ll watch over and over again.

Yo! My sistah! Don’t mess with her – Diane kick ass!

This is what happens when two goofballs try to tickle each other simultaneously during a photoshoot. We know each other too well!

What pigs we are! I think I ate more than Ruhlman.

I loved hanging out with friends, Diana, Stephanie, Garrett, Fran, Perre, Stephanie M, Diane, Casey, Lori, Brian, Claire, Cecilie, Jane, Richard, Gary, Brooke, Nancy, Brook, Justin, Lauren, Sarah, Sonnda, Owen, Steve Anna, and Ronn.

And here’s to my hero, my husband for teaching the boys the thrill of the boogie board and how to make architecturally sound sand castles.

Will we have Food Blogger Camp #3? You betcha! David and I are already working on it! Next time we’ll open the camp to more participants and choose another Club Med location…batting around ideas….Thailand? Brazil? Dominican Republic?….hmmmm….

And more…

• Food Blogger Camp: sad goodbyes (White On Rice)
• Food Blog Camp (Michael Ruhlman)
• Camp Tips & Insights (FoodWoolf)
• Matt’s Top 10 Moments (Matt Bites)
• Great Round-Up of Workshops (Recipe Girl)
• Ixtapa Nights – (Good Food Stories )
• Food Blogger Camp Re-Cap (Wasabimom)
• Food Blogger Camp, Part 1 (David Lebovitz)
• Food Blogger Camp, Part 2 (David Lebovitz)
• All I Got From Food Blogger Camp… (Steamy Kitchen)
• Food Writing, Photography & Styling Tips (worc)
• Food Photography, Getting a Cookbook Deal & Zihua Market (worc)
• Food Blogger Camp at Club Med Ixtapa (Dianasaur Dishes)
• Clicking the Mental Refresh Button in Ixtapa (Foodspiration)
• Food Styling with Adam Pearson (FoodSpiration)
• Food Blogger Camp Part Uno (A Beach Home Companion)
• Food Blogger Camp Part Dos (A Beach Home Companion)
• Food Blogger Camp Part Tres (A Beach Home Companion)
• Kickin’ It at Food Blogger Camp (Dianne Jacob)
• Food Blogger Camp Tips & Insights (Dianne Jacob)
• Sensuous Writing with Corn Pops (Dianne Jacob)
• Eating in Paradise (Frantastic Food)
• Sunset (Frantastic Food)
• A Day at the Beach (Frantastic Food)
• And He Said, “Let there be light” (Frantastic Food)
• Constants (and Tequila) (Vanilla Garlic)
• Zihuatanejo Market: A Short Tour (Vanilla Garlic)
• Food Blog Camp Flickr Pool (Photos)