Each year, the food blog community nominates its favorite posts of the year, then takes a vote to determine the Post of the Year. Naturally -- so many food blogs, soooo many posts, such short memories -- recent posts and consistently good writers dominate the nominations. To balance the year and the writer pool during 2008, here on BlogHer, each month let's collect a handful of posts that represent great writing from great food blogs. Here are my own contributions of the best writing from food blogs during January. But blog writers and blog readers, you too. Think back over January. What post moved you? called to you? made you think? changed your thinking? made you laugh? grabbed you at the first line? turned a memorable phrase? captured the rhythm of the month? If you have a contribution too, leave a comment with a link. And during February, watch. We'll look at Cooks with Quills each month.

“On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.” And so two generations after Silent Spring, thousands of bloggers started talking among themselves and with their readers. On this rare occasion food bloggers turned from recipes and restaurants. Their words are strong and spare, their concern inspiring and humbling.

In theory I love the idea behind Blog Day: Find some blogs you think are good and which are relatively new and recommend them to your readers. It's a way to share the news about great blogs with others who might not have discovered them yet. But even as much as I love this idea, this year it couldn't have been worse timing for me. Today was the last day of my first week back at school, which means adjusting again to a schedule, dealing with the pressure of 29 students, and juggling the responsibilities of blogging and teaching without going crazy. To make matters even more challenging, on my personal blog I'm smack in the middle of a special week of posts about how to use garden tomatoes , and I wasn't sure how to fit blog day in with that. (I know whine, whine, whine, bit it has been a very tough week!)