Tag: Blogging

Random

Office Hours

by Wendi12 Comments on Office Hours
image from http://www.istockphoto.com

I’ve been toying with the notion of changing the hours I keep here at BAH. Something about my experiment with posting Monday through Friday has made my hobby feel more like an obligation.  Much like I can walk past a sink full of dirty dishes and tell myself the dishes don’t exist, I’ve been mentally ignoring the blog, pretending I don’t see the empty spaces that need to be filled.

So instead of a new offering being served up M-F, the BAH kitchen will be open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  It feels like I’m back in college, trying to find the perfect scheduling combination that will let me avoid 8am anything and still get done by 2pm so I can get back to my apartment to watch the As The World Turns.

Don’t want to miss a single pithy offering here at BAH?  Subscribe to the rss feed or sign up for email delivery of new posts.  It’s as close as you want to get to me actually showing up on your doorstep in my robe and fuzzy slippers.

Random

IFBC 2010 – Seattle

by Wendi32 Comments on IFBC 2010 – Seattle

This year I have been asking myself one question over and over – why do I blog.  I know why I started the blog but what keeps me doing it three years later?  What is my ultimate goal for this and how do I define my success as a blogger?  Ok, so maybe not just one question.  But all the same, I’ve been looking for answers.  I went to Big Summer Potluck looking for answers, and instead found a community.  And when I went to IFBC, not knowing what to expect, I found ways to define myself by what I am not.

I am not looking for a book deal.  I am not interested in playing the SEO game.  I am not a recipe developer.  I am not educated on the needs of specialized diets.  I am not interested in paying to attend a conference and sitting through infomercials for websites or cooking encyclopedias.  Ultimately, the message I took away from the Big Summer Potluck was indirectly reinforced at IFBC – blog for myself, be authentic, and define my own success.

There were good moments at IFBC.  There were bad moments.  There were events I was excited about which provided huge disappointments.  And there were unexpected moments of powerful validation.  So instead of focusing on the parts of IFBC that made me question whether it was the best use of my time and money, the message I have decided to hold onto is that I decide my legitimacy as a blogger.

So, what did I learn at IFBC 2010?  I learned that I really don’t need to spend $$$ to attend a blogging conference.  Many of the best moments, the ones that really resonated with me, mostly occurred outside of the conference.  To me, the journey is where I get my inspiration and excitement.  The opportunity to meet new people and expand my food world can happen anytime, anywhere.  Next year, instead of sitting in a venue for 8 to 12 hours a day over the course of a weekend, I can pack up the car and see where the road takes me.  Someone else can have my seat at IFBC 2011.

Random

I Will Stalk You Until I Get Some Beets

by Wendi9 Comments on I Will Stalk You Until I Get Some Beets

There’s a secret, darkly obsessive side to my blogging.  It has to do with seeing who visits BAH and what posts they read.  And by who, I don’t mean I see anything like Jane Doe at 123 Main Street, Anytown USA visited at 10:39 this morning.  But I can see visitors’ IP addresses, general geographic location, and pages they have clicked on.  I can also see what search terms someone has plugged into the search bar on the site.  Two weeks ago I opened up my StatCounter and found the above search queries.  Clearly, someone was in a hurry to find a beet recipe. Continue reading “I Will Stalk You Until I Get Some Beets” →

Random

Shameless Self Promotion

by Wendi2 Comments on Shameless Self Promotion

BAH Tube Sign

Recently I’ve been inspired to treat BAH as a serious endeavor.  It finally dawned on me that by investing my time in the blog to cook and write and photograph, what I’ve basically done is develop my own personal brand.  Heck, people charge a lot of money to do that and here I’ve gone and done it purely by accident.  So I started doing things that I never imagined I’d do – like buying domain names, ordering business cards, trying to make sense out of html code and CSS, and finally saying to the world that I’m a blogger.

“Hello world, I’m Wendi and I’m a blogger.  Here’s my card.”

The latest entry on the list of things I never thought I’d do was set up a Page on Facebook.  Go ahead, log on to your Facebook account and search for Bon Appetit Hon.  We’re there, perhaps you’d like to be our Fan?  I promise that there will be no secret passwords or handshakes, no mandatory reading lists, and no pop quizzes.

My apologies if you saw me launch this over at Facebook and are already in the know.  But since it looks like this Social Networking thing is here to stay, I will shamelessly get the word out to try and bring some BAH flavor to the party.

Vegetables

Q&A

by WendiLeave a Comment on Q&A
image from iStockphoto.com
image from iStockphoto.com

A great thing about blogging is that it allows conversation between blogger and reader.  Like when I  tried Food In Jar’s Dilly Beans.  After trying the recipe, I commented on the post about the results I got. Continue reading “Q&A” →