Pete Ryan rolls up his sleeves once a week and tests new recipes in his Adams Morgan kitchen. His blog, Pete Bakes, documents his successes—and occasional failures.

Ryan started the blog after college when he moved into his own place and missed his mom’s home cooking. “She didn’t do it for a living, but I remember my mom always taking a tray of brownies out of the oven or icing a cake,” he says. After reading lots of food blogs, Ryan decided to start his own.

A self-taught baker, Ryan has tried his hand at everything from bread to candy to pastries to crackers. He aims to teach his readers something new with every post. Though he hasn’t won an award for his blog (yet!), Ryan recently won the first-ever Foodie Fight, an Iron Chef-type competition among local food bloggers. His winning recipe: potato-wrapped cod.

We caught up with the Web producer/graphic designer—that explains the slick Web site!—to find out his favorite recipes and his biggest baking flop. A warning before you read: This interview might make you very hungry.

In February 2006, Remy Munasifi got a video camera. His first video, shot for a song he wrote called "Macaca Blues," was on the Virginia state senate race. After it was featured in the Washington Times and the National Journal, Munasifi says he was hooked on the format. To date, he’s made 44 videos and has more than 76,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel. His videos have received more than 30 million views. "I'm not convinced all of those weren't my mom," he says.

Munasifi made a name for himself locally this month with the debut of his latest satire, “Arlington: The Rap.” The nearly four-minute video—set to a seriously addicting beat—takes jabs at Munasifi’s own neighborhood, hitting everything from condo fees to parking tickets to Starbucks. The video has landed him on three local news broadcasts, a spot in the Washington Post, and links on lots of local blogs. The video has more than 546,000 views—Munasifi’s 12th most popular video ever. (To see all of his videos, check out Goremy.com.)

Surprisingly, you won’t find a ton of rap music on Munasifi’s iPod; he prefers country. But, he says, “rap beats work well with jokes. You can get to a lot of punch lines at a pretty good pace.” Plus, Munasifi says he enjoys the challenge of coming up with rhymes.

We caught up with the 29-year-old full-time comedian/rapper to quiz him on his latest masterpiece. Check out “Arlington: The Rap” after the jump, then read our interview with the star.

2Birds 1Blog’s Meg—who likes to keep her last name under wraps—founded her blog almost two years ago with Caitlin, a friend from college. The pair were on opposite sides of the country and used the blog as a way to stay in touch with each other and their friends and family. Caitlin made her exit from the blogosphere last summer when she started graduate school—“She’s a productive member of society,” Meg says—but Meg continued to pen 2Birds solo for several months. “I had just quit my job and moved home with my parents,” says the Olney native. “I had nothing better to do than blog. Everyday.”

In March, Meg recruited her friend Chris to become the blog’s second bird. Together, the two write and rant about anything and everything on their minds—pop culture, fashion, the Snuggie, politics, Metro etiquette, sex, Meghan McCain. 2Birds’s readership now extends well past their immediate circles, and in December the site received a Blog of the Day award from Famous Blogs.

We recently caught up with Meg to pick her brain on everything from her favorite movie set in Washington to her top reasons to love and hate DC. Check out her side-splitting answers.

Naomi Reid married Josh Davis on June 19, 2007, two days after her 21st birthday. The two had met in New York City while in college—Naomi went to Juilliard to study dance while Josh attended Columbia University—and after their wedding they decided to make the Big Apple their home. Naomi started the blog Rockstar Diaries a few months later as a way to share wedding photos and post updates for family and friends in Florida and Utah. “I never intended for anyone to want to read it but a few close family members and friends,” Naomi says.

Today, her blog reaches a surprisingly robust audience of readers from the United States to Asia—everyone from high-school students to grandparents, marrieds to singles, artists to businesspeople. Naomi describes her blog as a personal journal: “It documents our lives, adventures, and the little things we love in life.” So why does she think it’s so popular? “Our focus on young love and a healthy marriage, which isn’t so ideal in today’s world,” she says.

Naomi and Josh recently made the four-hour trek south and relocated in Washington. Naomi says she’d never been to DC before they started planning the move in January. We caught up with the almost-23-year-old—her birthday’s June 17!—to find out what she and her husband love and miss about New York and what they’ve discovered about Washington in the short time they’ve lived here.

For years, Tim dreamed of becoming a television writer. He loved shows such as Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm and Arrested Development and wanted to write a comedy series based on his life. His dream gained steam two years ago after watching a few friends complete the 48 Hour Film Project.

That’s when Tim bought a book called How to Write a Screenplay. The book, he says, was dense and technical. When he mapped out the process—write a script, get it edited, rewrite, edit, and so on—“the romance sort of wore off,” he says. “I realized it would be very difficult to do.” Instead, he started a blog.

The 42 has become Tim’s creative outlet. Named for the Metrobus line that runs through Mount Pleasant, the blog covers neighborhood news and gossip, such as business openings and community events, as well as musings on the author’s observations from the bus window. Tim writes a regular feature called “Reasons to Be Car-Free in DC”—“I can’t afford it” recently made the list—and uses the blog as an excuse to snap photos around town.

We recently caught up with this Mount Pleasant expert—he’s lived in the neighborhood for six years—to find out what he likes and dislikes about the 42 bus and the communities he sees through its windows. Where to go? Why live there? What to do? Read on for his answers.

Erin Jackson’s blog is called You’re Welcome. “My ego came up with the name,” she says. “It thinks the world is hanging on my every word.”

Jackson is a standup comedian. She got her start when she was 24 years old, performing at clubs in DC and Baltimore. Now seven years later, Jackson is moving up fast: She has appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Comedy Central’s Live at Gotham, and she’s made several radio appearances on The Bob and Tom Show. Jackson was a semifinalist on NBC’s Last Comic Standing and a finalist on the network’s Stand-Up for Diversity Initiative.

She started her blog in 2005. It reads like a journal, in which she documents what goes on in her day-to-day life. Jackson never expected anybody to read it except friends and family. But now, she says, lots of her readers are people she’s never met.

We caught up with this Howard University alum to learn more about the local comedy scene. Read on to find out how Jackson got her start, where you can find her after shows, and what went on behind the scenes on Last Comic Standing.

Dana Williams-Johnson—known to her readers as DWJ—started her blog last year as a school project. Part of a course called Electronic Publishing Theory and Practice, a requirement to complete a master’s degree in publishing at George Washington University, Williams-Johnson and 30 other students launched blogs. Her grade? “I got an A, of course,” she says.

The Art of Accessories documents Williams-Johnson’s obsession with accessories. “I see them as artwork,” she says. “The Manhattan Saks Fifth Avenue is my Guggenheim.” The 30-year-old writes about anything fashion that’s not clothing—think makeup, handbags, shoes, skin-care products, and fragrances. She has several regular features, including a question-and-answer column called Wednesday Woes, in which readers write in with their accessory dilemmas.

Predictably, most of her readers are women, but she says men—including her dad and husband—check the site when she posts a gift guide. And here’s a nice surprise: When she recommends products, Williams-Johnson tends to feature items that won’t break the bank. But, she admits, “I’ll post an expensive item I’m drooling over even though I know I’ll never buy it. It’s okay to look!”

We caught up with this sometimes-frugal fashionista to talk about how to accessorize. Read on to find out what every woman should have in her makeup bag, one wardrobe item worth an investment, and this blogger’s best advice for the accessory-inept.