I've not posted anything for a while and started to feel guilty but also started to think about why I spend time blogging…
I don't make any money from it. I don't get sponsored. I've not been to any blogger events. I don't even know if anyone is interested in what I've made for dinner or where I've been out to eat.
I got really motivated to create a new recipe to post and it completely fell apart. Literally. Stuffed pretzel sticks were on my agenda so got to work making the dough…it turned into a beast and actually started to take over the kitchen…
It did look pretty amazing when I freed it from its cling film constraints…
But unfortunately everything leaked out while baking and it looked like a car crash…
I will say now though - looks aside, the pretzel dough was spot on and went really well with the salami and mozzarella filling! It wasn't camera worthy in the slightest but it did taste excellent!
I'm really not ashamed or embarrassed to show a failed project. Whether other food bloggers admit it or not, kitchen failures happen to everyone. No good recipe exists without a few failures, right?!
My food failure this evening made me want to post this even more.
So why do I blog?
I work in a very data and detail intense job and while I never thought my job and my blogging would be in any way related, I wanted to be very organised about putting my thoughts to paper (or keyboard) on this so I can get my blogging mind where it should be so…time for a list!
1. What Inspired Me to Blog
I first wanted to use my blog as an online diary. My Gramps has scribbled in notebooks since I can remember and with a memory like mine (rubbish), I wanted a way to be able to look back over the last 6 months, year, two years…My first posts were rubbish. No excuse, they were blah. A little later I started to share my own recipes. Pictures were rubbish and again, there's no excuse, they were crap.
What changed?
Dinner with my mum and sister. That's my sister about to tuck in to some delicious sushi just moments before unknowingly inspiring me to cook and blog more…
I was eating one of my favourite dishes (agesdashi tofu) which I'd not had for at least 10 years and I said that I could probably eat it every day if I could make it myself. My sister said "well why don't you?". Challenge accepted! While I've not yet tried to make agedashi tofu, I love challenging myself and making new recipes, trying to replicate meals I've enjoyed or just perfecting things I've cooked before!
I first wanted to use my blog as an online diary. My Gramps has scribbled in notebooks since I can remember and with a memory like mine (rubbish), I wanted a way to be able to look back over the last 6 months, year, two years…My first posts were rubbish. No excuse, they were blah. A little later I started to share my own recipes. Pictures were rubbish and again, there's no excuse, they were crap.
What changed?
Dinner with my mum and sister. That's my sister about to tuck in to some delicious sushi just moments before unknowingly inspiring me to cook and blog more…
I was eating one of my favourite dishes (agesdashi tofu) which I'd not had for at least 10 years and I said that I could probably eat it every day if I could make it myself. My sister said "well why don't you?". Challenge accepted! While I've not yet tried to make agedashi tofu, I love challenging myself and making new recipes, trying to replicate meals I've enjoyed or just perfecting things I've cooked before!
2. Why Do I Blog?
Blogging for me is the perfect hobby - cooking, tasting food, trying new things and photography. I use my blog as a way to improve my cooking skills as well as my photography skills and I'm learning all the time. Look at the photo from my first recipe post compared to a recent one….I've come miles! I still have a way to go with both kitchen and camera techniques…
I've also found that blogging (and Twitter) is a great way to experience new things and meet great people which to me is yet another motivation to keep on posting!
Blogging for me is the perfect hobby - cooking, tasting food, trying new things and photography. I use my blog as a way to improve my cooking skills as well as my photography skills and I'm learning all the time. Look at the photo from my first recipe post compared to a recent one….I've come miles! I still have a way to go with both kitchen and camera techniques…
I've also found that blogging (and Twitter) is a great way to experience new things and meet great people which to me is yet another motivation to keep on posting!
3. What Do I Want To Get Out of Blogging
Don't get me wrong - if I could make food and take photos for a living I would do in a flash! At the moment though, I see blogging as a great way to work on my culinary skills, improve my photography and best of all, meet people who love food as much as I do!
Don't get me wrong - if I could make food and take photos for a living I would do in a flash! At the moment though, I see blogging as a great way to work on my culinary skills, improve my photography and best of all, meet people who love food as much as I do!
4. Where Am I Going With All Of This?
Not the foggiest! I don't know where blogging will take me in the next month, 6 months, year, 2 years…I will keep on doing what I love (cooking, posting, eating) because it makes me happy and love looking back over what I've been up to. I hope that someone out there will try one of my recipes and enjoy it. Maybe someone might see something I've made and do something similar but with their own twist. Maybe no one at all is remotely interested but I do it for myself so anything above and beyond that is an added bonus!
What will not happen is that I will not make myself feel guilty for not posting on a strict schedule or not getting a gazillion hits on a certain post. I do this because I love it.
Bloggers - why do you blog?
Blog readers - what do you like about the blogs you read and what makes you bookmark a site?
Not the foggiest! I don't know where blogging will take me in the next month, 6 months, year, 2 years…I will keep on doing what I love (cooking, posting, eating) because it makes me happy and love looking back over what I've been up to. I hope that someone out there will try one of my recipes and enjoy it. Maybe someone might see something I've made and do something similar but with their own twist. Maybe no one at all is remotely interested but I do it for myself so anything above and beyond that is an added bonus!
What will not happen is that I will not make myself feel guilty for not posting on a strict schedule or not getting a gazillion hits on a certain post. I do this because I love it.
Bloggers - why do you blog?
Blog readers - what do you like about the blogs you read and what makes you bookmark a site?
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