Hello, It's Me!

Back in February I think I said something to the effect that I was back. Now, it appears that I wasn't, but I have some reasons for that and I would like to share a few thoughts with you.

First I would like to thank those of you who routinely check in to see if I've posted anything new. I appreciate your loyalty and your interest.

It is hard to believe I started this blog over seven years ago, July 21, 2007 to be exact. I started it because I felt a need to write and I wanted to write about what I do best: cook. I wanted to share with family and friends old recipes I've collected over the years and the excitement of developing, copying and trying new ones.

As I have followed and unfollowed other blogs, I've watched the trends change dramatically to include other social media. Blogger conferences focus on marketing, monetizing and use of different ways to promote a blogger's brand on social media with innumerable tools: Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, just to name a few. That is not the direction I ever wanted to go. Sure, I have a Facebook page. I like it because I can post short pieces and photos of more casual food settings without having to commit to producing a long involved blog post with staged and edited photographs. I feel more connected to my readers on Facebook because it's a little more interactive.

I started out enjoying the process of composing a blog post. I love telling the stories related to the food that comes out of my kitchen. I love writing the specific instructions for recipe preparation, particularly for those of you who are not very confident in your skills or are afraid to try something new or challenging. I love taking photos of my food and sought out tips to take better photographs. I started out with a point-and-shoot camera and now work with a Nikon DSLR.....well, when I work nowadays. Anyway, I asked for and received a tripod one Christmas. Although my kitchen is well lit, it doesn't have tons of natural light, so I purchased two professional lights and set them up in our guest bedroom. Then something happened.

I started looking at all those other blogs that were evolving into bigger, more professional websites. Recipe content is confined to easily printable boxes. There are buttons to links to the social media site of your choice. They started promoting giveaways sponsored by great companies that provided awesome products. I started comparing my blog to all the others, my favorites, and I was falling short.....very short. And I lost my enthusiasm.

This is starting to sound negative and that's not my intention. I don't want to be a "Debbie Downer."

I'm still cooking, although there are more days than there used to be when I don't feel like it at all. But mostly I cook everyday. If I don't cook, Tom does. There's usually something going on in my kitchen. It's just getting it to my blog that's the problem.

Once I do start posting again, here's what you can expect from me. I won't be doing giveaways or promotions. I won't ever promote products or websites that I personally don't fully support and enjoy myself. I will give you recipes, instructions and, hopefully, nice photos. The photos of my food will not contain any tricks to make the food look more appetizing, although I may use garnishes, herbs and other ingredients to balance out the photo. It will be photos of the food that I have prepared to serve as or with a meal, not something I prepared to merely photograph and post on the blog.

I hope to start posting again. I don't know when that will be. In the meantime, if you'd like to check in to see what I'm doing, you can follow me on FACEBOOK. Stop by and say hello.