It’s fry time…..

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1. […] That’s right, a girl…well more like a woman. A food loving, hockey loving, bacon loving woman! And I’m not talking about me. A while back now Kristen of Dine and Dish came up with an idea for veteran food bloggers to “adopt” a fellow food blogger who has been food blogging for less than a year. Who did I luck out getting? Rene of Pages, Pucks and Pantry. That’s right, a hockey fan. And come to find out we have a lot more common than we knew. From our love of bacon to The Girls’ Next Door. She owns more cookbooks than me(so jealous). Both our mother’s are cancer survivors. And we like our Stouffer’s Macaroni and Cheese to be crispy on top. Rene is off to a great start with her blog. She updates it often. In various forms. She has what she calls Small Bites which tell little tidbits about things from what chefs are visiting the San Francisco area(she lives in San Jose) to toilet shaped ice cream bowls(can you imagine) to what coffee drinks Starbucks are currently offering. She has recipes, I plan on making the Twinkie Tiramisu…white trashish…yes I am quite sure…but it’s probably pretty tasty! She highlights the wide variety of cookbooks she owns(and she owns a lot). And like any good fan the topic of hockey sneaks in. I think it is great that her blog has a focus. So often many blogs do not. I think a well focused blog helps make for a successful blog. And that is one of my tips to new food bloggers: 1. Figure out what you are trying to say. I have people ask me all the time if all I do is eat bread and sweets…um no. That is just the main direction of my blog because that is what I seem to know the most about and therefore can help more people that way. We eat plenty of real food people. Having a focus to your blog is a good thing. 2. Don’t go around to other people’s sites and ask them to read your blog. Don’t email them and ask them to be on their blog roll. It’s a tad desperate and not the way to go about it. Desperate women don’t get men and desperate food bloggers don’t get readers. Stick with doing what you love and the people will come. BUT it will take awhile. I blogged for well over a year before I had more than two people leaving comments. If you want other people to read you blog leave a comment on theirs. You have to leave your URL when you post a comment on most blogs so it is already there. More likely than not if you leave a comment to that blogger they will, just out of curiosity go and see yours. 3. If you want to improve the traffic on your blog enter blogging events. There are lots of them out there for you to chose from(say the Time to Make the Doughnuts Event that Tartelette and I are doing!) 4. Photos. Those are good. I will be honest and tell you that if you don’t have photos and you are not a blood relative(and even if you are) the chances of me reading your blog is slim to none. We are visual creatures. I started with a $100(on sale) camera(Nikon Coolpix 4600). It was a point and shoot and I did just fine with it…even won a few DMBLGIT awards with it. So don’t use the excuse that you don’t have a good camera. And if you don’t take that great of pictures…keep at it, you will. It, just like everything else, takes time. 5. Actually blog. There are so many bloggers who get all excited, run out and start a blog, and then nothing. I know because I was one of them. I really did not get serious into blogging until a year into it. Then it became addictive. […]

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2. […] The problem when you have a picky eater for a husband is that he doesn’t eat 90% of the things I make. And since I refuse to have a blog solely dedicated to all things peanut butter and chocolate, from time to time he gets annoyed. He gets annoyed that when he comes home and asked me what I baked today I have to usually tell him, “something you wont eat.” In my defense his list of things he wont eat is much larger than his list of things he will eat. So last week when I was in a frenzy of baking all things he doesn’t eat, I got the sad puppy dog eyes and the ever popular, “did you make anything I can eat?” So in order to appease him I went looking for something with chocolate and peanut butter. I have seen many a time on many a blog the World Peace cookies. They have been done and done again and so I wanted to change them again as I felt no need to beat a dead horse into the ground. Staring into the pantry was a half a bag of peanut butter chips and so I went with that. Sadly I enjoyed them way more than he did. He likes soft cookies and well these are really made more for dunking in milk than eating straight out…in my humble opinion. He did gladly eat them but the guilt did pang me and I ended up making him something else too. I will be making him doughnuts next week so that should put a smile on his face. And speaking of doughnuts, make sure to get your fry on by participating in Helen and I’s Doughnut Day. To get more info go here. Please remember that this has to be a NEW post about a doughnut or something in the doughnut family. […]

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3. […] What are you baking this weekend? 25 01 2008 On the agenda, for me, is banana cupcakes, muffins, cake or pie. Still unsure, but the bananas on my counter are screaming to be used. Then, coffee cupcakes, coffee cupcakes and more coffee cupcakes. After that, hopefully doughnuts. I want to participate in this event. If I can squeeze it in. I have never made doughnuts. Its the oil worries me a little. Hopefully, I’ll find time to give ‘er a go. […]

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4. […] Somehow I blinked and missed the month of January. Seriously, how can it be February? My mother was right(did I just say that?), the older you get the faster time goes. I remember asking my mother when I was somewhere in my mid-teens(we will go with 15 for argument sake) if she felt as old as she was(no I was not trying to be a smart ass)? She told me that though she was in her 40’s, inside she felt like she was 20. I smiled at her like the dumb, know-it-all teenager that I was…but now I know that yet again, she was right(grrr). If it were not for the extra aches and pains that seem to accumulate every year, the wrinkles around my eyes and the random stray gray hair that grows out of nowhere…I too still feel young. Oh now I am not old, this I know so let us not point it out to me, however I am much older than the giggling 13 year olds that sat in front of me at the movie today. And yet, in many ways I am the giggling teenager, heck, maybe even younger. I still buy Hello Kitty stickers(just got some yesterday). I run after the ice cream man. If I am up early enough, I eat my cereal while watching Sesame Street. I get highly amused by watching my Slinky go down the stairs in my home. And I still celebrate my favorite holiday, Groundhog Day, the same way. Yes, you read that right, Groundhog Day is my favorite holiday. It beats out Christmas(though not by all that much) and is followed by Flag Day and Arbor Day…for real. I guess you could say that I am for the underdog…or underground critter in this case. As a child I was always so upset that no one seemed to care about the groundhog, other than to bitch that there was 6 more weeks of winter. Why even have the holiday on the calender if no one is going to celebrate it I thought? And so celebrate it I do. It’s the holiday that I get the most phone calls for. People send me cards. When I was younger I would get gifts. My husband and I are actually planning to go to Punxsutawney to see Phil in person before I turn 40…it’s one of my goals. The day starts off by eating a chocolate sprinkle doughnuts(speaking of that….have you made your doughnuts?) for breakfast. Then either for lunch or dinner I have Chinese food. And then usually a movie of my choice. But always a doughnut and Chinese food. Not that exciting…but it’s a tradition started when I was a kid. I have groundhog puppets and stuffed animals. Groundhog cards and cut outs. If it has a ground hog on it someone sends it to me. So when my friend B sent me a link to a website with a groundhog day cupcake…I KNEW I had to make it. So in between my doughnut eating and Chinese food I found time to whip these up. Of course the only problem is, I feel a little guilty eating the groundhog. The good news for me is that he did see his shadow and there is 6 more weeks of Winter. Though this makes most people unhappy. The good news for you is that Phil is hardly ever right. […]

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5. […] And I remembered Peabody’s donut event. (By the way.. check out her ADORABLE ground hog day cupcakes! Hey sis.. How about those for the class next year???) […]

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6. […] February 9, 2008 at 8:25 am (Baking / Cooking, Food) At least according to Peabody and Helen it is! While I don’t have time to participate in many blogging events, I sorely regret seeing each fun new theme pass me by, and so even in the midst of homework, exams, and book signings, I put this one on my calendar, and dove right in. Unfortunately, that isn’t to say that I was able to give this project my full attention… Oh, far from it. So thoroughly distracted was I that I could have just as easily been measuring out dirt instead of flour, and I wouldn’t have even noticed. If there’s any tiny scrap of wisdom that I might pass along to you, my dear readers, it’s this: Pay attention to what you’re doing! All too often, recipes fail not because of poor directions, but a distracted or imprecise baker. And such was the case on the day I decided to make baked donuts. […]

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7. […] I woke up this morning, made the kids breakfast, and sat down to read my trusty Google Reader. I clicked away happily until I saw Peabody’s post on the doughnuts she made. They looked fabulous, as all her things do. I knew the deadline for her and Helen’s event, Time to Make the Doughnuts, was nearing. It has been eating at me since I saw it. I wanted to particpate, but finding time these days is the issue. Between TWD and CH, I bake way more than I should most weeks. Having just made the cheesecake last night for TWD, and looking at the dirty dishes in the sink. I did not feel like making another mess. No, I did not. But…I have never made doughnuts. Its cold outside today. Its a good day to give it a go. We could all enjoy some piping hot doughnuts, if I can pull them off. […]

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8. Time to make the doughnuts – Saffron doughnuts with rose icing and pistachio nuts…

   Had to make doughnuts twice before they were presentable enough for Tartelette’s and Peabody’s Time to make the Doughnuts Event 😉
   The first batch I tried to squeeze in on a busy day. This is usually not a good thing when you work with yeast. My…

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9. […] And I remembered Peabody’s donut event. (By the way.. check out her ADORABLE ground hog day cupcakes! Hey sis.. How about those for the class next year???) […]

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10. […] When Peabody and Helene announced their doughnut event, I briefly entertained ideas of creating a new doughnut but my heart kept coming back to a recipe I’d seen in Marcy Goldman’s A Passion For Baking. For those of you that haven’t heard of Marcy, she’s the baker behind http://www.betterbaking.com. Her most recent cookbook is now gracing my bookshelf and from the moment I set eyes on her recipe for French Cruller Doughnuts, I knew I had to try them. […]

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11. […] when I saw the event announcement from Tartelette and Peabody that they were jointly hosting a ‘Time to make the doughnuts’ event, I was ecstatic. […]

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