The Bloggies are in full swing...and there's not a food blog anywhere to be seen. I found this fact annoying because, from all of the blogs I read (political, humorous, media-related, etc) there is no better community of blogs than those who deal with food. You want evidence? Well, shall I point you to Is my Blog Burning? Or perhaps Sugar High Fridays? We hang out together on Chowhound or EGullet. We read each other's sites and laugh and think about food daily.

(UPDATED: Of course it would have helped if one of us, myself included, would have seen fit to contact the fine folks at the bloggies, and asked to include a food category.)

It's time that we recognize each other and the community we have created.

I've decided to hold Food Blog Awards in order to do this. My Goals for this are as follows:

• To give exposure to any food blogs or food sites that may not be on the communities radar.
• To demonstrate to the larger Blogging Community the quality of our own food community.
• To celebrate our community and give recognition to those who have made us laughed, educated us and kept is in the loop in regard to anything food related.
• To celebrate food.

I have 14 award categories, and I will be looking for nominations to fill these categories. To do that, I need your help. When I post a call for nominations, I need you to:
a) post your nomination in the comment section.
b) Promote the call for nominations on your own site.

Yes, you can nominate yourself, and yes, you can beg for nominations on your site. I have no problem with that. My hope is to have 3-5 nominees in each category based on the amount on nominations provided to me. Any ties will be based on my own opinion based no other criteria other than what I like. If we can get a big response, in the coming years, I would like all nominees to be able to participate in the nomination process... but that's a long term goal.

My only requirement in nominations? That they have posted at least 6 posts a month during 7 consecutive months of 2004 (The only exception to this rule will be to the "Best New Food Blog" category, whose criteria will be explained on teh Call for Nominations Post).

What do winners win? Well.. admiration and respect. And possibly a little graphic that one can put on their site. I will give $20.04 to the winner of the Best Overall Food Blog. If you wish to provide prizes, feel free to contact me.

We have a great blogging community, and it's time that we recognize that.

You can find the nomination entries here.