It’s been a while since I’ve posted something on here and for that I apologize. Everyone has been hard at work preparing Foodea for the next stage in its evolution.

Over the last few months, we have been focused on figuring out what we can do to give you a greater experience when exploring and using Foodea. We are approaching a point where the site will grow, change, and emerge with a whole new look and feel.

What changes are in the works you might be asking? Namely, Foodea will be all about YOU. You are the stars of Foodea and your creations and explorations are at center stage. Once the Foodea evolution is complete you will have a whole new opportunity to share your food ideas more efficiently, across a wider range of platforms, and engage with others much more easily. You’ve worked hard on your recipes, articles, videos, and photos, and we want to give you the acknowledgement that you deserve.

Stay tuned right here for more updates, as well as news on our official public launch that will be happening a couple of months from now. As always, feel free to share your own ideas of where you think Foodea should go.

Happy cooking!

We were lucky enough to win a draw run by Sun Microsystems for a ticket to MeshU which was held yesterday at MaRS. Good thing too because it was sold out!

It was a fun and informative day with lots of different talks divided along three tracks: Development, Management, and Design. I stuck mostly with the management track, listening to talks by Daniel Debow from rypple.com, Carl Mercier of Defensio, April Dunford of Rocket Lauch Marketing, and Jason Oke from Juniper Park. I did get to see one design talk about branding from Bruce Philip of GWP Brand Engineering.

I learned a lot and met many interesting people. The experience was great and we have Sun and Sandra Macdonald of Embarkonit Management Consultants to thank.

It was a great event, with an enormous amount of community support. This time the event went back to its roots and was held at the Imperial Pub at Yonge and Dundas. The pub was a great venue, as it made the event more intimate and more conducive to conversation. For the presenters, it was also a great layout, as everyone in the audience was easily able to see and hear the demos.

As our first public demo of Foodea, it went off without any technical hiccups. In the brief five minutes we had, we explained the philosophy behind foodea, showed off our new homepage widget (thanks to Dritan!), gave a brief technical walk through of the site and it’s functions, and then did some Q+A. The questions asked by the community were great. Plus, it inspired many to search foodea for bacon related recipes, which is always good!

One of the questions asked was really interesting, “Why do we have so many content areas, instead of focusing on only one?” The answer to this is very simple, and fundamental to our philosophy. For us, foodea is where food lovers connect to share their passion. Foodea provides the tools and capabilities to facilitate this interaction. We believe users will gravitate towards the areas that interest them, and because we are a user generated community, we are not the content creators, or providers (we are also foodea users as well, check out our my kitchen pages, Matthew and Mike).

During the event, we ran a twitter search to see what the community was saying about us. We were ecstatic at the results:

@erin_bury - Erin Bury

@fuzzz - Andre Gaulin

@kurtgooden - Kurt Gooden

@lamachannel - Laura

@Sunir - Sunir Shah

@ahmadnassri - Ahmad Nassri

Check out all of the tweets here, and connect with us on twitter: @matthewharris and @mikeblankier

Also had some feedback from the blogosphere:

ThomasPurves.com
At first glace, Foodea is classic democamp, here’s a vertical special interest social media rails site I made in my pajamas. Essentially a social recipe site with the ability comment, edit, upload photo/video etc and the ability to export ingredients to a shopping list (not a bad idea). All ingredients also hyperlinked to the “pantry” area of site where they have a wikipedia like section dedicated to food ingredients.
http://www.thomaspurves.com/2009/03/03/democamp-19-million-toronto/

Mike Conley’s Blog
A food related website.  Lists recipes, lets users rate them, comment, etc.  As a user, you can add this recipe to your “Favourites”.  Recipes can have back-stories, you can add photos and videos (great for folks like me who need to see cooking happen to pull it off).
http://mikeconley.ca/blog/2009/03/03/democamp-march-3rd-2009/

The other demo-ers showed off some great ideas and products:

Akoha is the world’s first social reality game where you can earn points by playing real-world missions with your friends. Think of it like a real-world pay it forward. We really enjoyed Austin’s presentation, and picked up a few decks to give it a try.

BackType is a conversational search engine that indexes millions of comments from across the web so they can be discovered, followed and shared. These guys were super intelligent, and we will definitely be using backtype to keep track of foodea chatter on the interwebs.

Dex is a professional networking and CRM app.  It’s like if linkedin, salesforce.com and xobni had a (smart) baby.  A great idea, as it integrates all the social networking sites as well, and Scott was a really approachable and nice guy.

Image Spark is a tool aimed at creative professionals that lets you upload, discover and organize images that inspire your work. We love designing, and inspiration at foodea, so we’re looking forward to playing around with this innovative tool.

Albert Lai, Kontagent: Get Viral. Get Kontagent. Viral Engineering – More analytics, less STD. Kontagent is a provider of analytics for apps on social media sites, specifically facebook. Once we get around to launching a facebook app, kontagent is going to be a valuable source of metric information.

Aside from the demo’s, there were also a few Ignite Presentations. Ignites are short five minute presentations using 20 slides that are rotated automatically after 15 seconds. The Ignites at DCT19 were insightful and inspiring.

Leigh Honeywell, HackLab.TO: Leigh introduced us to HackLab.TO and the global hackerspaces community. HackLab is like a geek community centre where anyone can become a member, and have a place to work and play with technology!

Amos Latteier, n8rtxt.org. This was a great talk and crazy idea. You text your location to 416-662-3408. In return you get a personalized nature haiku. Here’s one of ours: Spring night, Victoria St & Dundas Square, Toronto, ON, Canada — “dark silvr mapls / Eaton Centre, a few stars / near cafe tabls”. At the end of the ignite everyone in the room was texting for their own haiku.

Shawn Konopinsky, Infusion Development – Designing for a big table. An eye opening discussion of the evolution of user interfaces, and the movement towards NUI.

Varun Mather, Alertle - What we did right and where we screwed up - a look back on the crazy past few yrs running a “Web 2.0″ (now dead, too) startup. A frank and open presentation on the promise of a great idea, building it out, and watching it fail. Varun is the man for being able to stand up there, and give this talk.

Aidan Nulman, @anulman - a call-to-action for DemoCampers to get involved with local community organizations needing specialized work. Spoke about @Communitie, a project focused on social good, by connecting specialized workers in Toronto with local non-profits that need specialized work.

What did we get out of our DemoCamp experience? We had a great time demo-ing foodea to community. Saw many fantastic projects and met lots of interesting people in the Toronto startup community.

Bottom line. We plan to rejig our strategy in the coming days and shift our focus towards bacon

This past weekend we attended CupcakeCampTO, held at Lapspace Studio. It was the first Canadian installment of the popular San Francisco cupcake unconference, originally started by Ariel Waldman, Lynn, Marianne Masculino and Cindy Li.

Cupcakes were in plentiful abundance. When we arrived, the place was packed, and sugar was in the air. Luckily as people started clearing out, we were able to snag some delicious cupcakes.

Overall, it was a great first installment. Next time hopefully a larger venue will be used.  Also, due to the speed at which cupcakes were being consumed, perhaps cupcakes should be cut into smaller pieces (although it would probably ruin the fun).

Although not officially a competition, winners were announced. Proceeds of the event went to help The Humane Society.

Some photos of the event:

Our good friend over at blissfulbites.ca shared her photos:

Check out more pics in the official flickr pool.

Here’s a video showing the insanity that was cupcakecamp:

Here’s another video showing how fast cupcakes were gobbled up!

Spotlight - Cupcake Camp Toronto ‘09 from Suresh on Vimeo.

Looking forward to the next one guys!

Happy holidays from foodea.com!

Foodea.com is moving forward at a rapid pace and 2009 will be a banner year.

We wish you and your family a wonderful holiday season and a very happy New Year!

The Foodea.com Team
www.foodea.com

This past weekend the foodea.com team made some cookies for the holidays. We decided to make a few featuring our mascot, Foodea Guy.

Did you make some of your own themed holiday treats? Share them in the comments!

Here is a sampling of what can be found on Foodea.com.

This week we feature a great pork roast recipe, as well as the world’s “best” chocolate chip cookie.

Dijon-Crusted Pork Roast

Ingredients

3 Pound Pork Roast, French Bone In
1/3 Cup Italian Bread Crumbs
2 Tablespoons Dijon Mustard
1 Clove Garlic, Pressed
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F.
2. Mix the bread crumbs, mustard, garlic, salt and pepper to form a paste.
3. Put the paste all over the fat side of the roast. Place in a uncovered roasting pan paste side up and roast until the internal temperature of the roast reaches 160˚F.
4. Remove the roast from the oven and cover loosely with aluminum foil. Allow it to rest for 10 minutes before carving, at which time it will reach 170˚F, the best temperature to eat pork.
5. Serve with garlic mashed potatoes, and broccoli with cheese sauce.

View the full recipe: http://www.foodea.com/recipes/dijon-crusted-pork-roast

World’s Best Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

1 Cup Butter
1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
2 Cups Flour
2 1/2 Cups Blended Oatmeal
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 Package Mini Chocolate Chips
1 Chocolate Bar

Directions

1. Cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar together.
2. Add the eggs, and vanilla.
3. Mix the dry ingredients together, except for the chocolate.
4. Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients.
5. Add in the chocolate chips, and chocolate bar (broken into chunks).
6. Evenly distribute on a cookie sheet leaving space between the cookies.
7. Cook each batch for 6 minutes at 350 degrees.
8. Store cookies in an air tight container.

View the full recipe: http://www.foodea.com/recipes/worlds-best-double-chocolate-chip-cookies

HoHoTo is shaping up to be The Toronto tech event of the holiday season. It will be held on Monday December 15th, 2008 at The Mod Club in Toronto.

If you are interested in attending, I recommend getting tickets asap, as they will likely sell out quickly!

Tickets are $10 with proceeds going to the Toronto Daily Bread Food Bank.

“Join us at the #HoHoTo holiday party at The Mod Club Monday, December 15, 2008 at 7:00 PM (ET). Cash bar, DJ’s, and lots of twitterluvvin’ - what more could you want? It’s for geeks, phreaks, webheads, twitterfiends, techies, media, marketing, and PR types and all their friends. And everyone else! DJ’s, interactive media, and loads of holiday cheer, all for a great cause - The Toronto Daily Bread Food Bank.
It’s for geeks, phreaks, webheads, twitterfiends, techies, media, marketing, and PR types and all their friends. And everyone else! DJ’s, interactive media, and loads of holiday cheer, all for a great cause!”

Tickets are available at the official HoHoTo page, or via EventBrite. You can also contribute directly to the Daily Bread Food Bank (even if you don’t plan on attending).

If you’d like to follow or share event updates on twitter, use #HoHoTo.

Check out some of the shots of our booth:

As you can see, we had a big honkin TV (courtesy of Camera Department)!

We showed two clips:

This was a montage of different cooking segments that foodea users have uploaded. *No audio.

This video was an overall tour of the site. *No audio.

People really seemed impressed by the site and it has been reflected in our rising hits. Another factor in our hit counts going up is the fact that, during the show, we opened up the site to the public! No more pesky invitation codes or signing in to take a look around.

We met some very cool people at the show, here are some shots of their booths.

Share a Glass was our neighbor. They are a wine entertainment company that create events for wine tastings and educate people about wine.
http://www.shareaglass.com/

The Perfect Steak Company is all about giving you the perfect steak. From prime cuts to awesome sauces, the Perfect Steak company has you covered.
http://www.theperfectsteak.com

Cheese Of Canada is home to cheese expert and personality Gurth Pretty. Gurth is an awesome guy who is very passionate about not only cheese, but also foods and cuisines that are uniquely Canadian http://www.cheeseofcanada.ca

August’s Harvest is a Canadian company that creates several products, including a line of spreads made from Saskatoon berries. Similar to Blueberries but much tastier and sweeter. Pictured here is Eli Ham who co-runs the company and is an all around cool guy.
http://www.augustsharvest.com

Live Organic Food Bar is one of the first restaurants to have a profile on foodea.com. Owned and run by Jennifer Italiano, the booth was wicked and the food there is incredibly tasty, and since its vegan, very healthy.
http://www.livefoodbar.com

Here is a sampling of what can be found on Foodea.com.

This week we feature a great chicken recipe, and a perfect fall dessert.

Ian’s Basic Apple Torte

Ingredients

1 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter
1 Cup Unbleached Flour
1 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Pinch Salt
2 Whole Eggs
3 Medium Apples or Peaches
1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Sugar
1/2 Pint 35% Cream

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degs. F. Butter a 9” spring pan and place parchment paper on the bottom.
2. Melt butter in pan or microwave oven. Cream sugar and butter together in small bowl with a fork or Whisk.
3. In a large bowl add flour, baking powder, salt and wisk together. Add eggs and creamed sugar & butter and mix by hand until smooth. Pour into spring pan.
4. Place apple or peach slices in a circle into batter. Sprinkle a little lemon juice over the exposed apples or peaches, spoon a tiny bit of sugar over the same area – sprinkle cinnamon to taste. Place in oven for approx. 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out of centre clean.
5. Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes or so. Release the spring form and remove. Using 2 plates – place one plate on top of the torte and turn upside down. Remove pan base and parchment paper. Using the same procedure, flip cake onto the serving plate.
6. To add to the delicious taste of this torte when serving, take your heavy cream (35%) and drizzle sideways extending your drizzle onto the plate as well as the torte. ENJOY!

View the full recipe: http://www.foodea.com/recipes/ians-basic-apple-torte

Spicy Indonesian Chicken

Ingredients

3 1/2 Pound Whole Chicken
3 Tsp Red Chilies, Chopped
3 Cloves Garlic
2 Tsp Peppercorns, Crushed
2 Tsp Soft Brown Sugar
2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
2 Tsp Ground Turmeric
1 Tbsp Lime Juice
1 Ounce Butter, Chopped

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Use a large cleaver and cut the chicken in half, cutting down the back bone and along the breast bone. Or have the butcher do it for you! To prevent the wings from burning, tuck them underneath. Place the chicken skin side up on a rack in a roasting pan and bake for 30 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, in a food processor or mortar and pestle combine the chili, garlic, peppercorns and brown sugar. Process briefly until the mixture is a smooth paste. Add the soy sauce, turmeric, and lime juice and continue to process until combined.
4. After 30 minutes, take the chicken out of the oven. Brush the spice mixture over the chicken. Once well covered, dot with butter pieces and bake it for another 30 minutes or until cooked through. Check the chicken with a meat thermometer. The breast should read an internal temperature of 170 degrees.
5. Serve warm or at room temperature.

View the full recipe: http://www.foodea.com/recipes/spicy-indonesian-chicken