Channeling the past.

This post is my second-round entry for FoodBuzz's Project Food Blog. To cast a vote for me in this round, clickety on over using this link, or click on the widget to the left! Thank you so much for all of your support, my lovelies!

I've known for weeks now that - if I made it to round two - the second week of Project Foodblog would be a tricky one for me. The assignment this week is to make a classic ethnic dish with which we are not familiar, and to blog about the making of it - and the inspiration for it.

That got me thinking about the fact that even though half my heritage is Jewish (the paternal half), I've never made matzoh balls, kugel - or brisket. I mean, BRISKET! Is that crazy, or what? Mostly, I think, it's because my paternal grandmother, Marcia, passed away when I was a little girl, before she had a chance to show me the tricks of the trade. My mother has told me that the real cook in the family was my great-grandmother, Etta Blocker, who apparently worked magic with tough beef and matzoh meal. (That photo is of me with my grandfather, Irv, Marcia's husband. Sadly, I couldn't find any snaps of Marcia amongst my collection.)

And so, when I was brainstorming ideas for an ethnic dish for this challenge, I passed over my usual favorites (Vietnamese - though you should definitely check out my homemade banh mi over here - Thai, Chinese) and turned instead to the cooking of my ancestors.

A bit of research - including conversations with some fellow descendants of Eastern European Jewish folks - led me to the conclusion that every family has their own special version of brisket. My colleague Liz's family, for example, adds cranberries to their braise. Another friend's mom adds a full bottle of red wine to hers. Since I didn't have a family recipe to work from, I decided to turn to a source I trust implicitly - Gourmet - to find a version that suited me: namely, one with lots and lots of vegetables.

And find one I did. The version I settled on includes not only loads of vegetables - chopped onions, chunked carrots and celery, whole cloves of garlic and a hefty supply of crushed tomatoes - but also a bit of cider vinegar. And I love cider vinegar. I also love the thriftiness of the ingredient list, which seems very true to the dish's heritage. Gussying the stew up with a bottle of red would, no doubt, make for a delicious meal, but using tasty, cheap ingredients pays tribute to the frugality from which braises are born.

In a twist of fate, my mom was here this weekend and came along to the Greenmarket to help me find the ingredients for the brisket. We found the most perfect little onions and carrots in every color of the rainbow, not to mention the celery-iest celery known to humankind. We visited the German butcher down the block for the brisket itself, and grabbed a can of San Marzanos at the grocery store.

Like most braises, this one begins with browning. I browned the brisket on both sides, then moved to to a plate to rest. In went the onions, then the rest of the vegetables, followed by a cider vinegar deglazing that produced an aroma fit for a king. Next came the tomatoes, some chicken stock and the meat itself, which I tucked into its bed of vegetables. The whole thing went into a low oven for three hours and emerged, well...

...as a sweet tangle of fork-tender meat and rich vegetable goodness. It is - in a word - delicious. We'll be eating it tonight atop a mound of buttery mashed potatoes tinged with turnip, and topped with a gravy made from brisket trimmings, scallions and - yes, more - butter.

I think Marcia and Etta would be proud.

Wherein your heroine begs for your vote.

Hello, dear readers.

In case you are not one of the poor victims of my Facebook, Twitter or email pestering, I wanted to let you know that today is the last day to vote for me in the first round of Project Food Blog. Even if you're not a FoodBuzz featured publisher, you can still cast your vote for the Readers' choice selection - there will be one in each of the ten rounds of voting!

I'm pretty psyched about this contest, mostly because of the twin opportunities to discover so many amazing foodblogs and to have my work judged by some pretty incredible food world luminaries: Nancy Silverton, Dana Cowin, and Pim Techamuanvivit. What could be better?

And, so, I'd like to beg for you to vote for me. You can get to my first round entry by clicking here. And here, for your enjoyment, is the description I wrote for my contestant profile of my most memorable meal. Bon appétit!

My most memorable meal is one I shared with my best friend, Louisa. In 2006, we spent two weeks traveling in Europe together. We ended the trip in Paris, where we spent hours wandering the streets of Saint-Germain and Le Marais.

It was during our explorations of the latter that we stumbled upon Bistro Camille, where we feasted on duck breast with black pepper and honey, perfectly grilled lamb chops, the best steak tartare on earth, and an array of the finest preparations of potatoes (puréed, gratin and fried) ever assembled. And the crème brulée? Perfection.

Even now, four years (and several return trips) later, the experience is tinged in memory with a combination of serendipity, luxury and utter joy.

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?