Mary of One Perfect Bite and some other women food bloggers (including myself) are blogging our way through the 50 Women Game Changers In Food published by Gourmet in May ’11. Some of the women on the list you will know, others you may not, but either way, this will be a great 50 week journey to learn more about these women that inspire the way we think about food today.

Please visit Mary at One Perfect Bite, Val at More Than Burnt Toast, Joanne at Eats Well With Others, Taryn at Have Kitchen Will Feed, Susan at The Spice Garden, Claudia at A Seasonal Cook In Turkey, Heather at Girlichef, Jeanette at Jeanette’s Healthy Living, Katie at Making Michael Poland Proud, Sue at The View From Great Island, Barbara at Moveable Feasts, Nancy at Picadillo, Mireya at My Healthy Eating Habits, Veronica at My Catholic Kitchen, Annie at Lovely Things, Claudia at Journey of an Italian Cook  and Alyce at More Time at the Table  for their tributes to these 50 women.

There are not a lot of times that I have writer’s block and can’t come up with anything to say. This is one of those times. That being said, I would hate for that to get in the way of learning about these two great women. Who doesn’t love to eat local and fresh? That is where Ryder and Topalian come in. Edible Communities, a publishing and information services company that creates editorially rich, community-based, local-foods publications in distinct culinary regions throughout the United States and Canada was founded by Tracey Ryder and Carole Topalian in 2002. Please visit the website to find out more.

I had a hard time finding recipes for this week. That is especially tough when you can’t get your hands on a cookbook. I browsed through some sites online that had recipes speckled throughout from this duo. It came down to the Bay-Scented Chicken with Figs. It intrigued me, so I had to go with it.

Mis en Place:

This dish was a myriad of flavors. I opted to omit the optional prunes – simply because my husband is not a fan – but I can only imagine that they would add to the sweetness of the dish. There is a very mild sweet/salty contrast that blends well, and although the ingredients might throw you a bit, it just works. The end result is a light velvety sauce rich in flavor that is unlike anything I have ever tasted, but it goes so great with the tender chicken that it encompasses. I know that I just missed fig season here, so I’ll have to try this again with fresh figs when the time comes about, but it was still a very inviting dish.

In the Spotlight: Tracey Ryder & Carole Topalian

Tracey Ryder is a food and wine writer, cook, gardener and co-founder of Edible Communities, Inc. — a network of over 65 regional food magazines across the US and Canada. Carole Topalian is a critically acclaimed photographer whose work has been exhibited in museums and galleries including the Armand Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California; the Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin, Texas; The Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, California; and the Jan Kesner Gallery, Los Angeles, California. Her photographs have been exhibited in nearly 70 shows throughout the United States and Europe. Ms. Topalian has traveled extensively while photographing on assignment including locations in North Africa, Spain, China, South America and Indonesia.