If you’ve been accompanying us on our cruise through the healthy eating habits of centenarians, never fear, we still have two more ports of call, but this week we’re between Blue Zones*.  Since our last post  Jody’s been in Washington attending a conference on nutrition in public school lunches (Weiner-wink, where art thou?); in New York, keeping culinarily au courant and hobnobbing with her fellow wizards, and I’ve been in Pennsylvania, attending to family matters.  As the Garum Factory chugs from Okinawa to Costa Rica, our next Blue Zone, I thought I’d thank all of the people who’ve nominated us for awards in the last 18 months and offer a little side trip though where we’ve been in 2012.  

We don’t respond to awards.  I know that sounds churlish, but we don’t mean it that way.  Every week we’re hanging on by our fingernails to get the posts out on time and responding to your comments.  Getting involved in the awards process would put us over the edge.  We’re grateful that you think to nominate us.

All of the blogs below are worth a visit.  I’ve included their badges because they received–and accepted–the award.

Thank you, Alison, from Happy Domesticity for nominating us for the Sisterhood of the World Blogger Award.

Thank you, Torie, from Chilli and Mint for nominating us for Best Blog of 2012.

Thank you, Art and Kitchen, for nominating us for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award.

Thank you, Mom with Hearing Loss, for nominating us for the Versatile Blogger Award.   And to Georgina, at Love Rich, Cash Poor, for the same nomination.

Thank you, Susanne, from Motivation from the Heart, for the Kreative Blogger Award.

So, here’s a quick look at a few of the places we’ve been, and hoping that 2013 will be as interesting as the past year.  Thank you, everyone, for your visits.  We love hearing about your successes, we’re grateful for you pointing out the absence of an ingredient or dropped instruction; and the cockles of our heart overheat every time you choose to subscribe.   Catch you in the next Blue Zone.  Ken

*For the month of January–and a little beyond–we’re writing posts about the food of the Blue Zones, a term coined by Dan Buettner and his partners, Dr. Gianni Pes of the University of Sassari in Italy and Dr. Michel Poulain, a Belgian demographer.  Blue Zones are five specific regions in the world where people live exceptionally long, healthy lives.  The Blue Zones include The Greek Island of Ikaria; Okinawa, Japan; the Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica; Sardinia, Italy and Loma Linda, California.  For additional information you  check out our previous posts about Blue Zones food here, here and here.  You can find Dan Buettner’s article in the New York Times Magazine that aroused our interest here; and you can find additional information at the Blue Zones® website.

Clicking on something zooms it really large until it just takes over your life.