This morning started with an egg-less quiche. I thought I wouldn't be able to handle it, but it was actually okay. I'm not rushing to the breakfast table, but the caramelized onions made it almost tasty.

Lunch was delicious lentil soup and some lovely lettuce leaves and shredded cucumber.

Dinner...mmmmmm good. Asparagus "cream" soup, portobello mushrooms, white beans and spinach and sweet potato chips. A feast!

Oprah says she was inspired by the book Quantum Wellness by spiritual counselor Kathy Freston. Ms. Freston suggests trying a 21-day cleanse as a way to jump-start an inner makeover. You have to eliminate caffeine, sugar, alcohol, gluten and animal products from your diet for up to 21 days. Just the thought of this diet is horrifying. No caffeine? We don't think so.

Monday's launch of Shine, which will use a blog format, is aimed largely at giving the struggling Internet company additional opportunities to sell advertising targeted to the key decision-maker in many households. Yahoo said advertisers in consumer-packaged goods, retail and pharmaceuticals have requested more ways to reach those consumers.

Amy Iorio, vice president for Yahoo Lifestyles, said internal research also shows women are looking for a site to aggregate various content and communications tools.

"These women were sort of caretakers for everybody in their lives," she said. "They didn't feel like there was a place that was looking at the whole them - as a parent, as a spouse, as a daughter. They were looking for one place that gave them everything."

Yahoo is partnering with media companies like Hearst Communications Inc. and Rodale Inc. for content exclusive to Shine. Hearst publishes Redbook, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping and other magazines aimed at women, while Rodale publishes a range of magazines on sports and recreation, including Women's Health.

As online food sites become increasingly influential in the restaurant business, chefs and owners are plying bloggers with free meals to get good write-ups. Some are also posting favorable reviews about themselves on popular Web sites or becoming Internet scribes.

Among those using the tactics are some of the biggest names in the business. Terrance Brennan, co-owner and chef of New York's Artisanal Bistro and Picholine, hosted a cheese class for bloggers last year, waiving the usual $75-a-person fee. Bill Telepan, chef and co-owner of Telepan in New York, donated a $200, four-course meal to one influential blogger's online contest. And in Washington, the Park Hyatt's Blue Duck Tavern says it invited a customer back for a free Father's Day meal after she posted a negative comment on the Washington Post's Web site. (In a follow-up post, the diner wrote, "We will definitely return to Blue Duck Tavern," not mentioning that she had been invited free.)

Chefs say there's another upside to getting chummy with bloggers: advice on improving the food. In San Francisco, Chef Robbie Lewis of Bacar restaurant says he considers Ms. Gagliardi, of Tablehopper, "a friend" at this point. After hosting her at a "friends and family dinner" -- a meal to try out new dishes on close associates about a month after starting as the executive chef at the restaurant -- Mr. Lewis took her advice. He changed the way he plated a roasted baby leek dish, so it was easier for diners to get a taste of poached egg and sauce with each bite.

"I can't get feedback from other critics before publication," says Mr. Lewis. Ms. Gagliardi didn't write a subsequent review, but frequently mentions events at Bacar on her site.

It's relatively easy for restaurants to ingratiate themselves to key food bloggers. Publicists across the industry say they now include bloggers and food Web site forum hosts on their media lists, and regularly invite them to opening parties, free meals and other events.

What I was told, in a nutshell, is that the café staff has encountered a stream of would-be critics "with attitude," predisposed to take issue with or be critical of the business. Whether or not this is a correct perception, there are many more outlets (Yelp being only one) for customers and consumers to voice opinions about businesses on the Internet. And there's little most of these businesses can do about it, for better or for worse.

The staff said to me rhetorically, "If you've got a problem with something, you should tell us first rather than going online and posting." They also expressed the view that amateur reviewers, in this case from Yelp, were not making distinctions between local coffee houses and large corporate outlets like Starbucks. They were, the cafe staff argued, being "snarky" for entertainment reasons or to impress the Yelp community but not being respectful or mindful of the potential impact their reviews might have on a small businesses.

We know that Winston-Salem isn't the most veg-friendly place in the universe -- it doesn't have even one fully vegetarian restaurant -– but things are getting better all the time. There is plenty out there for vegs in the know. So the idea of this blog is to share the places, tips, ideas, recipes, products, and so on, that get us all excited.

So, you want to be a coffee expert? Join our experts each Tuesday in September for Coffee Conversations, a unique audio series exploring the world of coffee. Each week, hosts Scott McMartin and Aileen Carrell will take you to "Coffee College," and invite special guests to share their perspectives on topics such as entertaining with coffee, Fair Trade, coffee composting, home brewing, and selecting the coffee beans that end up in your cup.

Listeners are encouraged to share their ideas, comments, and questions via the link below, to create a fun and interesting dialogue about the delicious brew. We’ll also take you behind the scenes at New York's Fashion Week with Starbucks Salon, and to Seattle to experience the world’s first Starbucks.

The blog will follow Jimmy's adventures as he continues to battle with the elements in one of the UK's most dangerous occupations. Jimmy, who is the skipper of the Amity II, sails out of Peterhead. He runs a successful business - founded in 2005 - which aims to supply langoustines fresh or frozen direct to the UK and European market. Only the best fresh langoustines from the last day of fishing, selected by Jimmy himself, are exported, with the rest being sold as frozen.

The Blue Toon skipper, who has more than 30 years experience of fishing, has been a fisherman since he left school in 1976. In 1986 he bought his first boat, and his wife called her Amity which means 'friendly'. In 2004 he was awarded the Pride in Seafood industry award for his upbeat attitude and high-quality product. He has just been accredited as a member of the Responsible Fishing Scheme which formally recognises fishing practices.

There several pizza-centered blogs, but NYSlice is the only one focusing wholly on ready-to-eat pizza. Blogs on sites such as Pizzamaniac.com and Pizzatherapy.com, while equally passionate about pies, focus on making pizza at home.

Adam Kuban publishes NYSlice, and his bloggers comment strictly on pizza in and around New York City. Great coal-fired pies are the standard for all pies judged by the group.

"There are a lot of foods that inspire passion, and pizza seems to be one of them," Kuban said, explaining why he started the site. The Oregon native got hooked on pizza when his dad experimented with home recipes, and the move to Manhattan a few years ago landed him in pizza heaven. "I've got the bug for it for sure. I'm a passionate consumer when it comes to pizza."

I spend an insane, glorious amount of time in restaurants. And of course I see and taste more than I get to recount within the confines of weekly Dining section reviews, each based on multiple visits to a given restaurant, each boiled down to about 1,000 words from hours and hours of observation and tens of thousands of calories.

This new blog is an attempt to capture and share more of my notes from the field. To provide, in something closer to real time, a sense of what's being served in the city's newest, oldest, most delightful and most frustrating restaurants and of how those restaurants are serving it. To flag trends and, less often and more selectively, flog underachievers. To report moments of real significance and incidents that just happened to be interesting. To keep a journal, and to keep the tone of that journal light, casual, accessible.

The blog aims to be a place farmers can go to find information on agricultural topics, ranging from crop science to economics to veterinary medicine. Like all blogs, it also will let farmers comment on the information it presents.

"It's really nothing but the classic function of the extension service, which is to take research and interpret and apply it in the field," said Scott Irwin, a University of Illinois agriculture professor who helped develop the blog. "It's just using a new tool to do that - a virtual or digital county agent."

Web sites for farmers are abundant and a Google search for agriculture-oriented blogs found several. But very few were dedicated to more than a single aspect of farming or farm policy.

"We saw what was missing was the place that was summarizing, synthesizing, interpreting and suggesting new applications," said Irwin, a frequent contributor to Farm Decision Outreach Central, a University of Illinois Web site that helps farmers manage their operations.

So this morning I visited the blog, and it seems so close. Jenkins does get into these beautiful descriptions of garlic towers from the fields near Beaumont de Lomagne, veggies fresh out of summer gardens, and "torpedo-shaped onions"

But he doesn't post very often. He totally missed the Thanksgiving rush. And he doesn't open up to comments, which would be so ideal, because it seems to me that he would get tons of questions and could build up even more of a following that way.

It was only 7 or 8 years ago that we saw all sorts of businesses proudly announcing their websites. The same is happening when we see the likes of Fairway Foods in New York City posting a huge sign in their store promoting the store's new blog.

Where food critic Chris Sherman and I will blog about the things we love and hate about food and drink. Please join the discussion. Like us, we figure the only thing you love more than eating and drinking is talking about eating and drinking.

Here's my pet peeve: Why don't we get better bread, cheese and produce in the nation's fourth-most populated state? Why don't we demand better?

It’s all about the continuing evolution of consumer power. What started out as backyard discussions over clotheslines, where our mothers would discuss their opinions about retailers and products, evolved into 24 hour toll-free consumer hotlines, full-time consumer affairs staffs, letters to the editor and, at times, even protests and boycotts. Consumers want to be heard. They want to actively communicate their thoughts and preferences; as well as expose dishonest practices, false claims and bad service.

If you want to see someone's grocery lists, there's a blog waiting for you; if it's recipes you're after, or a tip on the hottest new restaurant, there are hundreds. With the number of hardcore foodies living in the Bay Area, new food and wine blogs pop up constantly. Food blogs let people connect and share one another's cultures, even if they only live a mile apart.