I have been talking with food loving friends as well as consulted my gut to come up with five food trends of 2012.

Carrots. Everyone eats them raw as a snack or just as a side dish. In 2012, carrots will be more of a star than an understudy. I had to most delicious carrots with onions dish in December, and I could eat them everyday. Besides the 2012 Pantone coloris orange so it just makes sense. Here’s a recipe for Carrot Cake Jam from the blog Apron Strings.

Artisan Marshmallows. Making marshmallows is becoming really popular. Emily of Nomnivorous has made hot pepper marshmallows, red velvet ones and also cardamom. In Brooklyn, Baked and Whimsy and Spice make yummy marshmallows. Eater spotted the trend of savory marshmallows.

Feb 26 Update: Now there’s a new dessert cafe called The Mallow Bar in Rosedale, which is near Baltimore.

Flavored Salt. Sea salt has gotten everyone acclimated to coarse salt. Now salt comes in different flavors will be big in 2012. You can make your own by checking out Jaden Hair’s recipes.

Just like I don’t believe that nothing is “the new cupcake”, I don’t feel that anything can replace bacon. However, duck fat is the new ingredient to add willy nilly. In the past month, I have eaten duck fat cookies and edamame cooked sauteed in duck fat. Duck fat in doses is nice, but could be a quack.

Cornmeal.  It is not just  for cornbread or frying fish. Cornmeal cookies, cornmeal pancakes and cakes are other ways to use cornmeal.  You can chalk it up to Southern influences, but I think cornmeal is a grain that people will substitute for flour in some recipes because of its texture and corn taste.

Natural Gourmet Insitute invited me to one of their Friday night dinners. In celebration of Earth Month, a percentage of the proceeds benefited Green Guerillas.  Chef Jay Weinstein planned a delicious and healthy three course meal.  The Natural Gourmet Institute has lots of public classes including a vegan cupcake baking class.

Asparagus Salad with Grain Mustard Vinaigrette and Spring Greens.

Chickpea Spinach Croquette over Parsnip Puree with Baby Carrots and Foraged Ramps and Mushrooms.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp with Cinnamon-Coconut Ice Cream and Fresh Mint

Buy Tickets today for the Vendy Awards which will be Saturday, September 24. I am on the social media committee for the Vendys, I am managing the Facebook Page for the Vendys. Please “like” Vendy Awards, and send tips of delicious street food from all over the city.

This could be big! Someone wondered what if Kanye West was a food writer, and created a Tumblr about it. No One Man Should Have All That Flour.

Speaking of food writing, check out Four Pounds Flour which is written by Sarah Lohman who is a historical gastronomist.

Not a new site, but a great resource if you go to blog conferences, BlogConferenceNewbie.

I will be in Fort Greene this Saturday hosting a twitter scavenger hunt from 12-3PM with BlackAtlas.com. If you find the van, then you can win passes for dinner at Chef Marcus Samuelsson new restaurant in Harlem, Red Rooster on Monday, November 15. Follow me (Niche) and (Black_ Atlas) for clues.

Update: Saturday was a lovely day, and I had fun hanging at the Brooklyn Flea and Greene Grape Provisions with Kiratiana, the editor of Black Atlas.

Today I had the pleasure of being on Nicole Taylor’s show on Heritage Radio Network, “Hot Grease“. We talked and laughed about the latest news in food and hot food topics. The radio studio is in a recycled shipping container in the back of Roberta’s Pizza in Bushwick. There’s a garden and I took a picture of the peppers growing in the backyard.

After the show I ordered the Speckenwolf pizza. I love Speck. It is the bacon of fancypants.

BTW, Nicole and I will be down in Atlanta in December for Lavish. I will be moderating a panel on food trends.

Yesterday, I attended Edible Manhattan’s Edible Institute at the New School. It was a very informative afternoon of panel discussions about food and drink here in New York City. This week is Eat Drink Local Week and this event was a part of the celebration.

Did you know that there’s a Food Studies Program at the New School? The program is a part of the Continuing Education college. BTW, there is a class on how to write a food business plan at the New School on October 23rd. The class is $170.

Here are some of the choice quotes by panelists:

“Make cooking into a more of a social activity” -Cathy Erway
“Know your food in a intimate way.”-Cathy Erway

“Brooklyn Kitchen is a kind of a clubhouse for the DIY food movement”-Tom Mylan

“To me it is taste.” -Ariane Daguin explaining the rise of the Brooklyn DIY food movement.

“When you’re frustrated, you make the political personal.”-Tom Mylan

“Food is a medium for creativity.”-Cathy Erway

“I don’t sell anything cheap. I sell things that are reasonable.”-Lou DiPalo

“There is most delicious per square inch in New York than ever before”.-Ed Levine

“We are more obsessed with food than before” Robert Siestama

“Artisan does not always mean that it is delicious”-Ed Levine

“Being in wine business means being in a distribution business.-Trent Preszler

A few days ago, I got an email asking me to pass on news of a fruit CSA that will be delivering to soon this summer/fall. As I am sitting here eating lunch at ‘wichcraft, I notice that Red Jacket Orchards’ juices are being sold here. What a crazy coincidence! Anyway, to stave off any colds during the fall and keep away scurvy, you may want to join Red Jacket Orchards CSA. Deadline for entry is August 5th. You can purchase a full share for $264 ($22 per week) or a half share for $156 ($13 per week). Pickup will be at either Jimmy’s No. 43 or Brooklyn Farmacy.

Hot off the heels of TECHmunch (very hot temps!), I worked with the Cake Group to do an event for the Sears Chef Challenge.  It was a video clinic/cocktail party/potluck held at Shooting Kitchen which is located in Tribeca.  I invited a small group of food bloggers and foodies to come with prepared dish.  Then the videography crew shot video of each person explaining their dish and talking about why they love to cook. After each video, the attendees swarmed over the delicious food which included deviled eggs, tuna steak on brioche, quesadilla, quiche, watermelon panna cotta, spicy shrimp salad and my thai cole slaw hot dogs.

It was fun to see Cathy Erway, Mary Connolly, Hagan Blount, Emily Cavalier, Catherine Oddenino, Siobhan Wallace, Mark Tofoya, Sarah McSimmons and Yvo Sin. It was nice to meet Pierre Lion who is a friend of Sabrina Bailly who I met at Internet Week. It was also a pleasure to meet Crystal Ingorvaia who is the new member of Nonsociety.

Thanks to everyone who came. It was a lovely evening!

I love french toast, waffles and pancakes, but I also crave a salty side like bacon or ham to compliment the sweet. Instead of frying up some bacon, I dabbed a little bacon marmalade on my french toast and it was delicious! Problem solved.

BTW, I will be attending UnFancy Food on Sunday at the Bell House and Fancy Food Show on Monday at Javits. Monday, I will also be hosting “Video Builds The Cooking Star” at Shooting Kitchen. This event is a video clinic for anyone-not just food bloggers- who always wanted to have a professional video of them doing a cooking demo. The event is sponsored by the Sears Chef Challenge.

I have attended many conferences, organized many events but this is the first time I have co-produced a conference.  Babette and I have been overwhelmed with the positive feedback from TechMUNCH attendees.

It was nice to meet so many smart creative people.  I was starstruck to see Jacques Torres as an attendee. All of the panels were informative. The panelists were generous with their expertise.   Read  Josh Unseth’s SEO presentation and Sarah Evans’ FTC Guidelines.

Thanks to sponsors which included KitchenAid, Robicellis, Tupperware and Valrhona.

Read blog posts from TechMUNCH attendees:

Eric of Garden Fork TV

Frani Lieberman of MBooth PR

The Ivory Hut

Hilary Allard from The Castle Group

Spent Memorial Day weekend mostly in Northern Virginia with an afternoon in our nation’s capital. My boyfriend’s mom and aunt went on a shopping spree at a farmer’s market in Occoquan, Virginia. Swiss chard, green beans, strawberries, carrots, radishes, lettuce and potatoes was just some of the stuff they got.  They also bought blackberry pie and lemon cheese pie from Mom’s Apple Pie. Both pies were delicious.

Sunday, we went to the Woodrow Wilson House which is the only presidential museum in DC. The house is pretty big and filled with historical artifacts. Then we had pizza at Pizzeria Paradiso. Monday, I ate breakfast at Vienna Inn which is famous for its chili dogs. I didn’t have chili dogs because it was 9:30AM.