Blogging The Good, The Bad, The Frustrating but it in All it Should Be Fun

She makes me smile

It goes without saying Sydney is my heart and soul. I remember when she was born, the nurse took her off my stomach (just to clean her). It was in that moment I had an epiphany ..that this tiny little newborn owned my heart. DF was just starting his career, while we were paying off his student loans; I didn’t want to leave Sydney with a sitter or day care, I decided to start a catering business out of our house. It seemed the perfect answer I could work with Sydney by my side. I wouldn’t say it was easy; it was challenging and fulfilling. This was prior to blogging, and about 3 years before the birth of google, my business was by word of mouth.

Sydney and I dived into the blogging world around February of 2010; I had no idea what a good blog was from a so/so blog was. Sydney and I wanted the blog to be about more than our recipes, each recipe we have created had history to it. The base to our friendship happened through 19 years of learning the culinary arts. (You are never done learning). It was paramount we were able to express baking was a catalyst for our family unity. With only that arsenal in our corner we were set forth to begin blogging.

We quickly learned photography would be a necessary tool and the ability to write well. In order to captivate the audience we needed to honestly share the good, the bad, and most impotently to remember to have fun.

Blogging can be an all consuming job if you allow it to run your life, that is probably the hardest lesson (at least for us) to learn. I still have to remind myself this is another journey in Sydney ‘s and my life. I am asked constantly if there is a guide or magic tool to become noticed. The answer, I’m afraid is no. If you google “successful blogging” a plethora of information will appear; though the information is good it is what works for some bloggers. Luck plays it’s own role in the blogging community too, which sadly no one can control. Now that I have painted a frightening picture let me add in aides that will help, but are not written in stone:

Be honest with your audience, (this is written in stone)
Blog often, with impelling information
a twitter account helps, tweet about not only yourself, but other blogs or information that you feel is relevant.
Learn about twitter
A Facebook page helps
know your camera, point and shoot is great, but if your camera has functions, learn everything you can about the camera’s ability
The photo food galleries help bringing attention to your blog, but they can’t make or break you
Compliment other blogs and bloggers you find interesting
Blogging takes time
Join groups in your blogging genre
Be familiar with your blogging host (i.e wordpress, blogger, etc)
Ask seasoned bloggers questions, generally they are open and friendly
HAVE FUN!

In mid 2010 we lost an entire post, because blogger, that was our host then, had something kinky happening and I hadn’t saved the post yet..I thought I could write till I was ready to save it to drafts. DF is a computer guru and was able to revive about a 1/4 of what I had written. Though we were grateful for the 1/4th we were still devastated 3/4th was in the internet o-zone. Not only do I save my work as I write ( I do most of the writing and Sydney does all of the proof reading), but I copy/paste into text edit. Word can sometimes cause issues with copy and paste.

Of course I am going to leave you with a recipe, Sydney asked me if I could invent a recipe with amaretto; Sydney’s Hot apple Pie with Amaretto was born. A perfect drink after a long snow skiing day.

Sydney’s Amaretto Apple Pie Drink:

1-ounce Amaretto

1 ounce calvados

½ -ounces Vanilla vodka

163 grams/ 2/3-cup apple cider

or Bobbie’s way:

½-ounce amaretto

1-ounce calvados

1-ounce vanilla vodka

Cinnamon for garnish

Prepare your mise en place. You’ll need a shot glass and Irish coffee mugs ( I found some reasonably priced at Crate and Barrel.)