Nobody likes a food blog
What you want in a food blog
- 1 photo
- 1 list of ingredients
- 1 set of instructions
- Adaptations (optional)
- Back story (optional)
- More photos (to taste)
- Show me the food.
- Tell me what I need to make the food.
- Tell me how to make the food.
- Save the stories about your grandma, dog, kids, childhood etc for WAAAAAAY down at the bottom of your blog. You know, the place where you usually find the recipe after scrolling for so long you’ve aggravated your carpal tunnel.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve learned a lot from reading other people’s food blogs. There is an amazing wealth of recipe ideas and technique tutorials to be found if you don’t mind slogging through the author’s life story before you get to them.
I understand the impulse. If there is nothing but recipes on your food blog, then you’re basically just an online cookbook. There’s nothing unique or marketable about pages of recipes and nothing else. You want something that makes your blog stand out, feel personal, and entice people to come back. Plus it’s a lot of effort to come up with recipes, perfect them, make them easy to follow and recreate, and then put them online for people to find. If you’re going to go through all that trouble, you want to share with people what you’ve learned so that your recipes turn out as you intend them, and people feel like they are learning from your blog. You want to share, teach, INSPIRE….
Meanwhile, your readers JUST WANT THE FORKIN’ RECIPE.
So that’s what I intend to give you. I do solemnly swear, dear reader, that recipes will always come first on this blog. After that there will be tips, tricks, and alternatives for those of you who want them or prefer a bit more guidance. Finally, there will be the occasional life story, because sometimes you need something to do while the dough rises or the water comes to a boil.
About me
As promised, life stories last. My name is Amy and I’m a thirty-something recent PhD graduate who enjoys perfecting recipes when perfecting research seems too hard. I learned to cook by watching my mom, and the food network. Of course, as I already said, the occasional long-winded food blog has also been helpful.
Experimenting in the kitchen beautifully blends my desire to eat delicious food with my tendency to avoid the unnecessary human interaction that inevitably comes from leaving my apartment. Also I’ve been a student forever, which makes me poor and unable to afford to eat out at all the places I would like.
I get my inspiration from restaurants I’ve eaten at, places I’ve traveled, the Food Network, Great British Bake Off, my mom, and the various food knowledge floating around in my brain that I’ve amassed over the years.
I’m a self-proclaimed foodie. I love a challenge. I eat meat, gluten, dairy, peanuts, and tree nuts, but don’t worry, I don’t put them in every recipe. I do cook with as much booze as possible. I don’t have a favorite dish to cook. I believe in making everything from scratch, except when I don’t feel like it.
Frustrated Foodie 