Exciting news!!! Last night, Bella Eats was featured on CBS19 News in Charlottesville! I was absolutely thrilled when Marijean Jaggers (STL Working Mom) asked if I would like to be the Charlottesville Blog of the Week. Um, yes please!  Many thanks to Marijean and CBS19 for the great coverage. Here are links to the two videos that were shown - an initial promo clip and then the full story. Enjoy! The Bella Eats Introduction Bella Eats as Blog of the Week You can read my full interview on Marijean’s blog, but here are a few highlights...

Bella Eats was born nearly one year ago - October 31, 2008.  It began as a food diary - a way to hold myself accountable to my healthy lifestyle goals and to track my training for the Charlottesville Ten-Miler... ...While I enjoyed the support of the food diary community and the wonderful emails I received from readers who were inspired by my training and eating habits, what I really discovered about myself in those first four months was a renewed passion for cooking, writing and most of all, photography... ...There are two food issues that I feel passionately about and would like to push more on the blog:  daily cooking at home and using seasonal and locally-sourced ingredients... ...By testing out recipes in my own kitchen and then posting them on Bella Eats, I feel like I am a filter for the countless recipes available in cookbooks, magazines and online that can sometimes be overwhelming for those with little kitchen experience... ... I always try to give credit to the source of ingredients in my recipes, and have started a "Local" page with links to area food providers and businesses that support local food...I have big plans for weekly City Market recipes next summer and would like to start conducting monthly interviews with local farmers and business owners.  While I realize that these Charlottesville-centered posts may not be as helpful to my non-local readers, I hope that they will be inspired to learn more about their own local food communities... ...I've learned so much since starting Bella Eats - about photography, writing, cooking and baking.  I have no formal training in any of these areas and have certainly had my share of disasters over the last year, but have found that there is no better way to learn than to practice.  The food blog community is strong and supportive and I've "met" some really amazing people through our blogs...There is an amazing amount of knowledge out there to tap into, and I'm excited to be providing a fraction of it to my readers...

I'll be back tomorrow for the next installment of Bella Eats Pie, but here's a little teaser of the first test this week, Chocolate and Salted Caramel Mousse Pie...