Love me up with YOUR VOTES!!

Did you know that in addition to wowing you here with my personal exploits, I also run a salt free/low sodium recipe site coincidentally called The Daily Dish??  You didn’t?!  Well – SURPRISE!  This enchanting personal blog you’re reading is actually an outgrowth of that OTHER Daily Dish, a project I’ve been undertaking Oooh.. the past four years. For FREE. Mm-hmm.  Here’s my lastest recipe.

Somehow my salt free recipe site (That OTHER Daily Dish) manages to be the most well hidden treasure of the culinary world.  And frankly, I’m tired of it.  WELL. No more!  Last month I got an email from my friend Tracy, encouraging me to enter a grant contest being held by Mom Central Consulting.

Snazzy logo, huh?!  Ayuh.  Their website explains the premise behind the program:

The Mom Blogosphere is brimming with talented, smart, passionate and ambitious women. We feel so grateful and want to do our part in helping take Moms’ personal brands to the next level …whether graphic or technical help, a site redesign or self-publishing a book… we want to pitch in to provide the support.

SHA-ZAM!!!!!!  Okay, last time I checked I was a blogger AND A MOM.  Yehaw!  In a nutshell, the grant contest will award five bloggers $2000 each.  This money can be used to improve and promote each of the winning websites. In the case of The Daily Dish, I would FINALLY be able to upgrade the site, giving it the royal “spa treatment” it so deserves, as well as self-publishing a cookbook of (you guessed it) 365 original recipes.  A salt free Daily Dish! from The Daily Dish! 🙂

Yesterday The Daily Dish cleared the first of three hurdles towards winning a grant.  My application was accepted! The next hurdle? Open voting by the public.  THIS IS WHERE YOU ALL COME IN BIG TIME.  Open voting begins today, March 1st, and runs through April 15th. One vote per person per day, through the next month and a half.  That’s a lot of votes.  But I for one know you’re all up to the challenge.  To (poorly) paraphrase Walt Whitman:

YOU ARE LARGE.  YOU CONTAIN MULTITUDES. and you know people.

Please, if you value my website, if you love this blog or JUST WANT TO BE NICE! take a moment to click the link below. Your vote today, tomorrow, and everyday through April 15th will make me SO VERY HAPPY I CAN BARELY CONTAIN MYSELF JUST THINKING ABOUT IT!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!

OPEN VOTING BEGINS TODAY! and RUNS THROUGH APRIL 15TH
(one vote per person per day)

CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR THE DAILY DISH!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!! SERIOUSLY!! I MEAN IT!!!!!

Fore River Sanctuary Samosas with Mango Dipping Sauce

I don’t typically cross-post across my two blogs, preferring to compartmentalize my life (hah) but I’ve been so busy recreating this recipe I didn’t get round to writing anything else.  So indulge me.

Portland Trails is holding a “Trail Gourmet” Recipe Contest and I won’t beat around the bush.  I’d like to win.  I thought long & hard about which of my recipes to enter, and while walking the Fore River Sanctuary this week it came to me.  SAMOSAS.  I’d created a fantastic low sodium recipe for samosas four years ago, shortly after launching The Daily Dish.  While a little time intensive to make, these samosas freeze beautifully and would showcase one of Maine’s premier agricultural crops: Potatoes!  Samosas are perfect hiking fare.  Small and portable, yet hearty and filling.  They’re a healthy meal in an incredible, edible wrapper.  And they’re DELICIOUS – especially with the tangy subtle sweetness of the mango dipping sauce, which is easily toted in any lightweight lidded container. Double dipping a MUST!  So if you’re craving something extraordinary the next time you head out on the trail, look no further than Fore River Sanctuary Samosas with Mango Dipping Sauce.  Gourmet vegetarian snacks that pack a healthy, meal-like punch – NO SILVERWARE NECESSARY!

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NEW! Reader Recommendations page

For those of you reading through from my “day job” — this morning I launched a new READER RECOMMENDATIONS page. I hope this will become a valuable feature of the site; a place to share and collect information about low-sodium products (and the all-important where to find them), salt-free recipes & other cooking tips.

I created the THE DAILY DISH website to be a COMPLETELY FREE resource to those in need. I myself despise those obnoxious flashing banner ads and loathsome deceptively-placed promotional links. So contrary to (what many see as) good sense, a year into this venture I still continue to run my website gratis for the world. Over this past year I have garnered a dedicated and growing readership. Hundreds of people visit the site each week and find it a useful tool. So… Here’s your chance to give a little bit back!

AS AN EXAMPLE.. People google into THE DAILY DISH each day looking for places that sell salt-free or low-sodium bread and lavash. If readers would just take a second to email about where they buy their bread, I can post a list of stores by state and location. I myself can provide information about not only Philadelphia, but Atlanta, as well as some parts of Vermont. And I’m just one person. If Knowledge is Power, then collectively we can all be stronger.

My readers are valuable, and I KNOW they have valuable information to share. People on low-sodium diets suffer from inconvenience as well as health ailments. Some feel alienated from life and loved ones, particularly when it comes to social (read, eating) situations. Eating out isn’t fun when you have to check and re-check orders! And having to explain your medical history to strangers is embarrassing. But life on a salt-free diet doesn’t always have to be so hard. Through this forum, YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE and all it takes is a moment of your time. I look forward to hearing from you.