Tag: blogging

Fourth Anniversary Thoughts

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About four years ago, as the world was still dealing with the effects of the COVID pandemic, I started a blog. I’ll be honest now. I wanted it to become “big.” I wanted it to be popular, similar to the food blogs I read and visit online often.

It didn’t take me long to realize that running and maintaining a food blog of that caliber is a full time job. And unless I was willing and able to put in the work, that it would be a long shot for me to achieve that goal. I guess I assumed that it would happen overnight. How delusional I was!

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A New Adventure Awaits

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Hi everyone!

As you may have noticed over the better part of the last year that this site has become nearly dormant. Ever since I started a new job last summer, I just haven’t had that much time to bake and then write about it.

At first I thought that as I settled more into my new role, things would change. It would become easier to find a rhythm that worked. But eventually, I realized that I think I’d just rather be doing other things. So, the baking went to the back-burner. I even stopped collecting cookbooks in the same capacity as I had earlier.

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Pumpkin Roll for an October Afternoon – Barefoot Contessa 62

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It’s October and that means its now socially acceptable to bake pumpkin things without getting an eye-roll from pumpkin haters. I had an extra day off earlier this week so I decided to see if the baking bug was still within my soul. (Hint: it was.) What did I bake? None other than Ina Garten’s Pumpkin Roulade with Ginger Mascarpone Filling.

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Crochet Update

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Hi Readers!!

Things have been really busy for me lately, which is why I haven’t been posting too much. But I had a little bit of time today and I finally finished Part One of Atlanticus, which is one of my current crochet projects. Here’s what it looks like after doing 14 rounds.

I really enjoy the colors I chose for this project and I think it works with the ocean/mermaid theme splendidly. While this section is not perfect (you can see that it is slightly asymmetrical), I think its beautiful and I cannot wait to see how this one works up. Eventually it will turn square shape. Since I am slightly over-gauge, my blanket will be a bit larger than the original finished design, but that’s okay with me. I’m just worried I may need more yarn.

I hope to get back to baking soon, but until then, stitch on!

Sometimes Life Gets Busy

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Sometimes life gets a little busy. And sometimes you find yourself saying, “Where did the time go?” I can’t believe it’s been nearly two weeks since my last post. Frankly, I haven’t had much to post. With the holiday last weekend and poor planning on my part, I haven’t had a chance to spend some time in the kitchen working on recipes. However, with multiple days off this week (thanks to some vacation time) and a pretty much empty weekend, I should have plenty of opportunity to whip something up.

I’m currently thinking of making Ina Garten’s recipe for brioche loaves this weekend. Who says bread baking is only for the winter?! But, I’m also itching to get my hands back into the Magnolia Bakery Handbook. Perhaps a tasty muffin or scone recipe is on tap, too.

A Bundt Cake with a Wonderful Flavor – Barefoot Contessa 57

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As a way to make good on my promise to include more Ina Garten recipes this year, I made a Bundt cake with a classy flavor combination. At least I think it’s a classy one–for me it invokes upper crust and “adult flavors.” What is this flavor you ask? Chocolate and orange. Like all of Ina’s recipes, this cake was very easy to bake and tasted so yummy. I also got to use the new photography backgrounds I purchased a few weeks ago. I think the photos came out great.

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A Return to the Ina Project

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Earlier this week, I found myself on Ina Garten’s website. I can’t recall exactly why I was there but nevertheless, I was lost in the Ina’s World tab for a little while. I noticed the link to the cookbook index and wondered if it was finally updated to include the recipes from Ina’s most recent book, Go-To Dinners.

Sure enough, it was!

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Top 5 Most Popular Posts of 2022

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What a year it has been for this tiny little blog! I reached over 55,00 views and had one post that really, really took off. For a few months I thought I had finally “made it” in the blogging world. Even though it’s been over two years since I started this little hobby of mine.

As I did last year, I decided to write a post covering my most popular posts of the year, regardless of when they were published. So here it goes!

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Looking Back on the Year 2022

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Wow! Can you believe it’s almost time for the new year?? Wasn’t January just last week?

Anyway, I decided to take some time this December and reflect on how things went on the blog this year. Here is my 2022 Year in Review!

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My Second Blog-aversary

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A little over two years ago I started this blog. At the time I wanted to create an Ina Garten cook-through blog so that’s what I did. And the early posts from the fall of 2020 are there to prove it. In fact I started with this simple recipe for applesauce which is still the only one I will use.

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