The James Beard Awards and looking for spring

The first day of spring.

Can you smell it in the air?

Yesterday I learned that this blog of mine is a finalist for the 2012 James Beard Awards in the “Individual Food Blog” category.

How did it feel? Like an outer-body experience. An incredible honor to be surrounded by authors, journalists, bloggers, and photographers I have admired since the beginning. You can view the list of all the finalist on James Beard Foundation site.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

And today we leave for the Basque Country where we will be the next couple of weeks visiting my family and old friends.

We will be waiting for the first cherry and apple trees to blossom. We will welcome the baby sheep, make mamia from sheep’s milk, and if we are lucky, we might even go mushroom picking.

I miss the feeling of missing the seasons. When winters starts to make room for spring and there is change in the air. The smell of morning dew on the first buds, the birds finally return and wake me up with their chirping, and the first days without a coat. I miss the feeling – and that is why I must go home now. “Florida, you are warm and beautiful, but I need mud and rugged forests”.

I will be back soon and in the meantime, eat well and enjoy the first days of spring.

See you soon.