Why me? Here's why.

Dear Readers: This post is my first entry for the Food Buzz Project Food Blog contest. You'll see a few more of these over the next few weeks. If you're a fellow Food Buzz feature publisher I'd love it if you'd click on over via my widget on the left there and vote for me. And if you're not a publisher, you can still vote for me as your Readers' Choice! There will be a Readers' Choice winner in each of the ten rounds. If you don't feel like voting at all, or want to be extra, super-nice to me, post the link to this all over the place, wherever you can. I promise cookies. Smooches!

I love to cook. I love to eat. I love to travel. I love to write.

That's why I blog.

Hearing that someone has loved a recipe I've created, or that they've used Queenie as a travel guide to one of my more beloved destinations, or just that my photos made them hungry? It's really, really cool. And it makes me feel that my blog - something that is, at heart, a narcissistic exercise in sharing my own favorite hobbies with the world - actually does some good.

So, really, why I blog is a pretty simple thing to explain.

But as for why I should be the next food blog star? I feel like this is the sort of question I should have my mother answer for me, so as to appear all the more modest. She's not here right now, though, so let's think about what my mother would say, and see where that gets us.

I love my readers, and I want to do right by them. This means staying on top of what's going on in the food world in general, and in New York in particular. It means testing my recipes religiously before I post them, and being thoughtful about what makes a good recipe to begin with.

It also means taking on the responsibility for educating my readers - however gently and sweetly - about the things I'm learning as I go. This includes everything from what makes a true martini, to how champagne is made, to how to find sustainable seafood, no matter where you live.

I'm serious about exploring the world around me. This blog is well-traveled, both within the five boroughs, and to places further abroad than a MetroCard will carry you. I love to bring my readers along with me on my journeys, and I try my darndest to make sure they know what I've found along the way.

Finally, I'm kind of awesome. I know, I know - modesty. (But, remember, this is what my mom would say, so it's all cool.) I'm warm, I'm funny - or, at least, I try to be - and I'm all kinds of game for pretty much any adventure you can cook up. (Get it? Get it? Puns are awesome, right? If you don't like puns, please forget I made one.)

All in all, I think I'd be a pretty excellent food blog star. But, really, it's up to you now. So I'll end with this:

Pretty please?