Warning: Read these blogs at your own risk. Cravings will follow.

This week my focus is on food blogs -- and that should come as no surprise. Food is pretty important. It can also be delicious. It can be a way to spend time with family. It can even beautiful as the photos on these blogs will attest.

It’s clear, however, that not everybody can eat everything. There are restrictions. There are allergies. There are diets. There are budgets. But, there are also options. And, luckily, there are also a host of great blogs out there serving up inspiring dish after inspiring dish.

With that in mind, let’s chop up some veggies, pre-heat the oven and enjoy this brief taste of some of the best food blogs I’ve seen lately:

The Kosher Foodies is a blog written by identical twin sisters looking to keep kosher while simultaneously trying to keep good food in their lives. Actually, good might be an understatement. The food looks downright delicious. Keeping kosher is a dietary restriction, but again, you wouldn’t know it from the looks of the food on here. If I were to pitch this blog, I’d look for anything to do with food and religion, specifically Judaism. Check out the full review here.

Trailer Park Karma is a food blog that’s not just about food. It’s about life. It’s about where people end up. It’s about karma. But here’s the thing: People eat along the way, right? You still have to come to the table. Luckily, this blog is sharing the recipes from their table for everyone to enjoy. If I were to pitch this blog, I’d look for anything to do with food, and possibly Buddhism. Check out the full review here.

John and Elana Talk About Food is a brother-and-sister food blog. The pair have scoured New York City for the best Italian food available. They also share the recipes from their own culinary experiments. What sets this site apart is the familial bond that is so clearly strong between these two. If I were to pitch this blog, I’d look for anything to do with Italian food and siblings. Check out the full review here.

Gluten Free Girl is a food blog chronicling one woman’s quest to eliminate her gluten intake while continuing to eat well. I must confess I was a skeptic. But after reading over this blog, I see it is possible. If I were to pitch this blog, I’d look for recipes with wheat alternatives. And please, please, please don’t be the one to pitch this blog a bread-centric recipe. Check out the full review here.

Smitten Kitchen is a great big food blog born out of a tiny little kitchen. You can expect to see great dish after great dish on this site. But don’t expect to see fancy, hard-to-access ingredients. The site wants to share good food that readers can make themselves. If I were to pitch this blog, I’d look for anything to do with food. Stories that help cooks make the most of their space might also work. Check out the full review here.

That’s all for now. In the meantime, if there’s a blog I should be reviewing, drop me a line or a note in the comments, and I’ll take a look. Until next time...

My "Interspecies Buddying" Pinterest board is No. 1 on HuffPo's "Must Follow" list.

You’ve probably heard of Pinterest. It’s the new social media network that’s all the rage. Well, the hoopla is rooted in truth. In January, the site attracted over 16 million unique visitors, twice the amount it drew just two months earlier. (You can find even more information on Pinterest here on my colleague Lee Green’s board.)

Not surprisingly, brands are looking to get themselves and their products in front of those eyeballs. But as a new platform with some tricky terms and conditions, what’s the best way to stake your claim in this new space?

In order to use Pinterest well, you first have to know what it is. In recently describing the site via email to my dad, I called it a virtual scrapbook. “You see things on other websites, and you 'pin' them back to 'boards' you've created. It's curation. It allows users to keep track of the things they find interesting or cool.” (Did you get all of that, Dad?)

At this point, I should probably tell you why I was emailing my dad about Pinterest. Well, recently, the Huffington Post named my only board – Interspecies Buddying – one of the "most gorgeous" ones around. And I don’t have to tell you how it’s every English major’s dream to have their collection of animal pictures reach such Internet fame!

But in all seriousness, something about this board resonated with other Pinterest users. I went from around 60 followers to 1,200 almost overnight. The email notifications became so frequent, they had to be disabled. And now, every single time I post a new "pin," I get almost immediate interaction and engagement. So how did this happen?

Well, for one, Huffington Post had asked readers for examples of interesting boards. Shortly thereafter, someone sent them mine. HuffPo loved it so much that when they rolled out their list, my board was the first one shown on the slideshow. It’s not surprising. The Internet loves pictures of animals. That’s probably going to be true forever. But, there’s more to it than that ... I think.

On this board, as in everything I write, I try to use my own voice. Every picture or video on my board has what I hope to be a funny comment underneath it. I’d wager to say it sounds a lot like how I speak in real life. I’m not writing what I think my audience wants to read. I’m writing what comes to my mind when I see a French bulldog encounter a horse down on Wall Street.

I also strive to consistently update the board. And now with all these new followers, I sort of have to do so.

Furthermore, pictures of animals hanging out with other animals are a somewhat unique thing. My board – Interspecies Buddying – is unlike most other boards out there. Yet, it still fits within the Pinterest universe.

Now, that’s all well and good for my Interspecies Buddying board. But what about brands? How should they use the site?

Lauren Arrigo, marketing manager at Juliska, says, "We see Pinterest as a great opportunity to further connect with our core customers. It is an easy transition for us to create the boards and share a little more insight into the brand with our fans and others who may not be familiar with us."

Basically, Pinterest is another way to reach customers. It’s another way to keep your brand, your product and your voice in the front of people’s minds. When done right and with the interests of customers in mind, it can be used as another tool in successful customer outreach.

And if none of that works, try pictures of animals. It’s certainly worked for me.

Working as the blogger relations manager for PR Newswire, I come across my fair share of great blogs that cover a wide variety of subject matters and interests. As you might expect, some blogs are better than others. In an effort to highlight the better ones, I do my best to review one of these blogs every day.

This week, my focus is on personal finance blogs. And, well, most weeks my focus is on my own personal finance. How could it not be? You don’t have to be obsessed with money to know that it affects a lot of what we do. It doesn’t always equal happiness. But being smart about it now can certainly alleviate a lot of misery down the line.

So, with that in mind, let’s clip up our coupons, compare the prices and enjoy this brief tour of some of the best personal finance blogs I’ve seen lately:

Frugal Quack is a personal finance blog, sure. But I don’t think it would be fair to say that cash rules everything around them. (You’d be thinking of the Wu-Tang Clan.) This blog delivers solid advice on how to balance your checkbook, but they  also extol the virtues of reusable grocery bags and lower stress levels. If I were to pitch this blog, I might look for stories that highlight how money-saving tips can lead to a better quality of life. Check out the full review here.

As you may have guessed from the name, Budgets Are Sexy is a blog that doesn’t take itself too seriously. But that is not to say it doesn’t take personal finance seriously. The blog author may rock a mohawk (honestly), but he has also written for Kiplinger and has been mentioned and/or featured in about a dozen other places. If I were to pitch this blog, I'd add a little personality to my message. Check out the full review here.

Money Crashers is a personal finance blog, and, as such, you’ll read the kind of standard stuff you’d expect. But this blog also examines the ways in which so many things in our lives -- exercise, weddings, frozen food -- affect our bottom line. If I were to pitch this blog, I'd look for outside-the-box financial tips. Because, clearly, that’s the way they’re approaching the subject over on their blog. Check out the full review here.

Novel Investor is a great investment resource for investors of all skill levels. If there’s a way they can help their readers, they’re going to write about it. And I’d have to think that’s part of the reason they write about everything under the personal-finance sun. If I were to pitch this blog, I’d look for anything around personal finance, the stock market, credit cards, tax code -- honestly, they write about a lot. Check out the full review here.

In full disclosure, PerkStreet is a financial institution. And in even fuller disclosure, they did not pay me to write this review. It just so happens that they have a great blog with great financial tips for just about anyone. You don’t even have to be a customer of theirs. If I were to pitch this blog, I’d look for stories that help consumers make the most of their money. Check out the full review here.

That’s all for now. In the meantime, if there’s a blog I should be reviewing, drop me a line or a note in the comments, and I’ll take a look. Until next time...