Diary of a Mad Food Blogger
How I Lost My Mind but Found My Kitchen
Mid-November, BB (before blog)
I discover food blogs. Following a link off a Media Bistro newsletter I find Food Musings and am fascinated. Cooking, restaurants, breezy commentary, I’m hooked. I spend the better part of two days reading the archives before moving onto Traveler’s Lunchbox. The recipes, the photos, the writing—it's all gorgeous. I find Gluten-Free Girl—damn that girl can write, and her enthusiasm is contagious. I spend days reading, drooling, and dreaming of food. There are so many food blogs. Some of them, like Chez Pim, have been around for years. What have I been doing all this time, and why don’t I make my own Thai curry paste like she does?
Late-November/Early-December, BB
I stage a self-intervention. Too many hours spent reading food blogs. I do have to work and my friends would like to see me. But still I am thinking about food and cooking more. Pulling neglected cookbooks off the shelves and planning dinner party menus in my mind. I go to my mom’s house to dig up a rolling pin. Apparently I haven’t needed to use one in the past three years.
Mid-December, BB
I come down with a nasty flu/bronchitis thing. I spend the holidays in pajamas, trying to prop my laptop at a convenient angle so I can read while curled up in bed. I discover Chocolate and Zucchini and Oswego Tea—Food! Paris! I can’t get enough of it. I pull myself from bed to cook. I leave the house only to go to the corner market for missing ingredients. I remember how much I’ve always loved cooking, how I wanted to be a caterer when I was younger. Somewhere along the line I fell into a rut, but my fascination with food is back full force now. I’m officially obsessed.
Late-December, the tipping point.
The inevitable happens. Late the evening of January 1, I begin a food blog of my own. I have a name already, chosen when I signed up to comment on my friends’ (non-food) blogs months ago. Tea and Cookies I dashed off without thought, riffing on my nickname of Tea. Was it prescience? I don’t know. I feel a bit abashed starting a food blog—there are so many amazing ones out there, what could I possibly have to add? But I stay up until 3 AM writing my first post and guess what, it’s fun!
Day 2, AB (after blog)
Recipes are harder to write than I imagined, trying to articulate a tactile experience (exactly how to quarter and cut the cabbage correctly), having to put measurements on ingredients I usually add by feel. I have to prepare each dish, to make sure I get it right, even if I’ve made it a million times before. And of course, I need to take a picture for the blog.
Day 3, AB
Photos are challenging. My little digital camera doesn’t want to let me take close up shots of my food (grrr). And the flash reflects off of shiny dishes. I want to be able to take amazing shots of berries like Shauna, or perfectly staged place settings like Melissa, and don’t even get me started on the utter gorgeousness of Keiko’s photos. How do they make each picture look so beautiful? How many sets of dishes do these people have? I remember the boxes of pottery I have stored in the loft, souvenirs from years of living and traveling abroad. Might be time to dig them out. I thaw a container of the butternut squash soup I made on New Year’s Eve, just so I can take a picture of it.
Day 4, AB
I find myself in a grocery store in Japantown, I’m not sure how it happened. I left the house to go to the hospital to have them check out my lingering bronchitis, but ended up in Japantown instead. I wander the market, each item and scent bringing back memories of when I lived in Japan. How could I have forgotten all of this? I leave the store laden with ponzu, umeboshi vinegar, konbu, bunches of shungiku. I never do make it to the doctors. Instead I go home and cook.
Day 5, AB
I do go to the doctor today, but late because I am blogging and that is far more fun. I walk home the long way so I can stop by the grocery store and buy the whole-wheat flour I need to make Irish soda bread for my post about cycling through Ireland. I haven’t made bread in ages. It looks good, smells delicious, and I desperately want to taste it. But the batteries on my camera are dead and I need to take a picture of it first—you know, for the blog. I surreptitiously slice off a bit from one end. Later, batteries replaced, I arrange the bread on a tea towel with the cloth draping over the sliced off end and feel quite pleased with myself. And dang, the bread is good.
Day 6, AB
After keeping silent for nearly a week, I confess my new blog to a few friends who log on and leave comments. Blogging is something I am doing for fun and keeping anonymous, but it cracks me up to get comments. Some of these friends have their own blogs, so they understand the compulsion. Most of them are fellow writers. We debate whether or not blogging is “real” writing and decide it is. I am a writer by profession but this is the most fun I’ve had with writing in years. I neglect my writing and editing work in order to write and edit (and re-edit) my blog posts.
Day 7, AB
I add “blog,” “blogs,” and “blogging” to my spell check dictionary. Yes, they are words to me now. I email my brother the link to my blog, a bit self-consciously. “I’ll check it out, once I get used to the idea that my sister is a ‘blogger,’” he writes back.
Day 8, AB
I visit my friend Susan and raid her Meyer lemon tree—at night, in the rain. It’s not just that I love Meyer lemons, I need to take a picture of them for my post on Michel Chiarello’s lemon marinade (and I want to try making the Meyer lemon sea salt that Shauna blogged about). I wonder if I’m being too snarky in my post about Michael Chiarello. Is it poor form to make fun of famous chefs on one’s food blog? Is there blog etiquette? An Emily Post of blogging? I still can’t bring myself to use the word “blogosphere.”
Day 9, AB
I need a new camera. Not to take pictures of my adorable baby niece. Not even because, as an on-and-off travel writer, I need to document my trips and get paid for doing so. No, I need a new camera so I can take better pictures of my dinner to post on my blog.
Day 10, AB
I’m on the phone with a client when my computer goes screen goes black. I restart and the screen flickers on and off. I take the laptop to the shop. It may be the inverter cable, the tech says, or the inverter board. It will take up to a week to fix. My first thought is not how am I going to run a freelance business with my only computer in the shop, but how am I going to update my blog? This is a disease and I truly am sick.
Day 11, AB
I continue to blog, the computer screen flickering on and off (dedication or addiction, you be the judge), as I try to decide whether to repair existing laptop or buy new one.
Day 12, AB
I need a mandolin, and a small food processor for little jobs, and an ice-cream maker, and definitely some better knives. And I’ve been wanting a Kitchen-Aid stand mixer for at least a decade now (all the other food bloggers have Kitchen-Aids). I try to keep myself from Sur la Table for fear of the damage I might do.
Day 13, AB
Pim, of Chez Pim fame, was asked to blog about what she ate for breakfast each day. What did she eat—artisanal breads, Strauss yogurt, gorgeous preserves, a frothy latte. What would people say if they knew I eat the same thing for breakfast each and every day? Am I too boring to be a food blogger?
Day 14, AB
I go to my mom’s house and raid her kitchen, loading up my car with dusty tart pans, cake pans, and a rusty Dutch oven that hasn’t been used in over a decade, perhaps two. Some of these things bring back memories—the muffin tin my brother and I made after-school popovers in, the charlotte mold I bought to make my first crème caramel. Somewhere along the line I forgot how much I loved cooking. Odd that it took a blog to remind me.
Day 15, AB
The Food Blogging Dilemma: there are so many recipes from other blogs that I want to try, yet I need to be cooking original meals I can write about for my own blog (and forget about going out to eat). It’s a good thing I work at home and can cook both at lunchtime and for dinner.
Day 16, AB
I’m making my own chicken stock. It is something I have done before, but not for ages. I’ve gotten used to the sheer convenience of bouillon cubes, but no more. A friend emails me: “I don't know a single person who has ever in their entire lives actually made chicken stock. Maybe my grandma before she died . . .”
Day 17, AB
I buy chard so I can make the panade recipe from Orangette. I hate chard, always have. I think I’m loosing it.
Day 18, AB
The panade is amazing. I love chard. My friend is wowed. I get fan mail from her the next day: “I can’t stop thinking about dinner last night . . . I’m in awe . . . you’re spectacular.” This food blogging thing is a pretty good gig.
Day 19, AB
I send my mom the link to my blog, nervous that she might take offense at my stories of her culinary ineptitude. "Wow, sweetie, you did this all yourself?" She is highly impressed. I have to explain that it's really just a blog template, I haven't become a web designer in my spare time.
Day 20, AB
I am redeemed: I discover that Molly, from Orangette, also eats the same thing for breakfast every day. I can be a food blogger after all! Of course she makes her own granola . . .
Day 21, AB
I decide to forgo an industry cocktail party this evening—a fun, semi-swanky event I usually enjoy—in order to stay home and try to recreate authentic Irish Soda Bread using a cast iron pot to replicate the effect of a bastible, a 19th century cooking vessel. Peat logs from Ireland would be the authentic fuel to cook over—will someone promise to stop me before I order some?
Day 22, AB
I’ve practically given up eating in restaurants. When a friend wants to get together I have them over for dinner at my house. My friends with the 2-year old who can’t go out at night—I bring them dinner. The few times I am in restaurants, I am tasting and trying to reverse engineer the recipe so I can prepare it at home. Is this Spanish olive oil or Italian? Was the fennel blanched or is it raw? I have entire conversations with people about food—what they’re eating, what they like, what brings them comfort. I fear I am beginning to sound like a broken record but I can’t help myself.
Day 23, AB
Back in December, I read an article about food bloggers linked off Chez Pim. I laughed when I read that Guy Prince of Meathenge delays his family dinners until he’s got a good photo of the meal for his blog. His hungry kids stand around waiting for dad to finish photographing their dinner.
But tonight I not only photographed my dinner, I did four rounds—taking pictures, uploading them, deciding none were good enough, and going back to try again. Four rounds! Twenty minutes later, when my dinner was cold, I had the shot and could finally eat. I’m glad I cook and eat alone. This would be far too embarrassing to do in front of another person.
Day 24, AB
I had a comment posted today from someone I don’t know and am not related to. It’s silly how exciting it was.
Day 25, AB
The family gets into the act: my mom showed up today with a box of linens and dishes she thought I might want to use as “props” for my “photo shoots.” How cute is that?
Day 26, AB
There are so many good food blogs out there! Who are these people? The quality of writing (from people who are not even professional writers) is astounding and humbling. And how do they have the time to follow and comment on so many blogs? I’ve begun to feel sad when I find another good one. I don’t have time to read them all, yet I want to. Messy Cucina, Eggbeater, Seven Spoons are all amazing. I like newly established blogs, like Pomelo Pleasures. At least there I can read through the archives quickly. I’m still working my way through the last five years of Chez Pim.
Day 27, AB
Someone I don’t know and am not related to linked to my blog today. What’s more—it’s someone whose blog I have been enjoying. My little blog went out in the world and made friends with another blog and now they’re walking around the playground holding hands. I’m as proud as any parent would be.
Day 28, AB
The addiction spreads: I’m down visiting Mrs. B and she gets into the act, offering to do a guest post about making lemon curd and marmalade. We set up a photo shoot of toasted crumpets, curd, and marmalade. She pulls out her grandmother’s china for the occasion. We make a cup of “stunt tea” to complete the tableau and take a gazillion pictures, laughing at ourselves for being so into it.
Day 29, AB
The pictures from Mrs. B’s are so much better than anything I’ve taken with my own camera. Maybe I’m not a crappy photographer, just laboring with crappy equipment. Definitely need to upgrade.
Day 30, AB
I enter my first food blogging event, called Virtual Vacations. Food bloggers all over the world recreate dishes they ate on holiday and post the recipes and stories. How fun! And how cool to think there is this odd electronic food thing connecting us all, wherever we may be. I write up my story on Tortilla Soup and wonder what the other posts will be like. Can't wait to see.
Day 31, AB
My oven has been on the fritz for months now. My landlord decided it needs to be replaced over a month ago but—as with all repairs—he is slow as molasses. I am driven to frustration from baking plans continually foiled. “You don’t understand,” I tell him, “I need a working oven—I’m a food writer!” I almost laugh as the words leave my mouth, and feel bad for lying, but only until the shiny new stove arrives.
YOU KNOW YOU'RE AN OBSESSED FOOD BLOGGER WHEN: A full 80% of the photos in your computer files are of food. Your fridge and freezer is stuffed with ingredients you’re wanting to try and use. Your stove is splattered and your kitchen floor needs to be swept often. You have a stack of cookbooks by your bed. You check your blog comments before checking your own email every morning. You have two kinds of balsamic vinegar and four kinds of salt. You try to make dinner early so you can take pictures of it in natural light (or hope for leftovers you can photograph the next day). Your friends love coming over for dinner, but are getting a little annoyed that most of your conversations revolve around food, cooking, and obscure types of mushrooms. You’re corresponding with people all over the world that you’ve never met (some of them have real names you don’t even know) and yet they feel like kindred spirits. You’re beginning to have a personal relationship with your butcher/baker/greengrocer/wine merchant. You can’t eat a restaurant meal without wondering how it was prepared. You’re genuinely sad that citrus season is coming to a close, but are looking forward to artichokes and asparagus. You get a little worried when a favorite food blog is not updated for a while—has something happened to them? You hope it’s not serious. You turn down social invitations in order to stay home and bake. You laugh at yourself often, because you realize it’s a little obsessive, but you’re having too much fun to really care much. You’re well fed and very happy.
And so the adventure continues…
It has been a wild and wacky month—almost two months now. Who knew that when I clicked on that first link I would fall into a rabbit hole of new food, new people, and great writing. I feel a bit like I did when I found the travel writing world, my backpacking friends, or the literary community here in San Francisco. It’s a recognition, a quickening, a sense that, hey, these are my kind of people. It’s like finding your tribe.
Where will it all go? I don’t know. But I do know that this is only the beginning. There is so much to learn and experience and taste. It feels fun and adventurous and exciting, and yes, I do laugh at my obsession. That’s the difference between sane people with obsessions and truly crazy people—we have the perspective to laugh at our craziness. At least that’s what I’m telling myself this week.
I’m beginning to realize that it’s not just about food, at least not for me. It’s a greater connection to history, tradition, culture, home and hearth, and to people—be they the people you choose to gather around your table to share the fruits and vegetables of your labors, or the people who grow or craft the food you buy (I’ve been reading the archives at Life Begins at 30 lately and will never think about who and where my food comes from in quite the same way again). It’s all the glorious and flawed web of our world, and I want to taste and share as much of it as I can.
Thanks for following along, I hope you enjoy the ride. I know I am.
Posts
91 comments:
What a delightful front-row-seat recap! I think that, in the same way you can be a writer and not get paid for it, you can be a food writer and not get paid for it and not feel bad about stressing the importance of your oven to your landlord. As one of the friends who has benefited from both the food and the writing, cook on, I say, cook on!
Wow. And you are too a food writer. That wasn't a lie. Even your travel stories have stories of food. Remember how we raved on and on about the tea and food in your novella? You are, you are!
And your butchers are way cute.
Tea, Great stuff. You are perfectly capturing the insanity and fun a blog can bring. I share your reasons for wanting a new digital camera-not for friends or family, but food, damnit!
awesome post. makes me feel like you were sitting next to me, telling me the story in person. great energy. vi
this is wonderful! it is really good to be able to learn about how a connection (and no less a wonderfully interesting and humorous blog) happens and grows. i have not read others, but i surely am enjoying yours!
Oh my gosh! It was like reading my own diary about the last 4 months since I discovered fod blogging! Cimplete with worrying when a favorite blog hasn't been updated to turning down social invitations "Can't I've got bread dough that needs beat down in exactly 45 minutes."
I'm at work sneaking in bits and pieces of your blog, switching between you and the Polar Bear Swim I'm supposed to be writing about, thank god I'm not the only one!
ssssh! you aren't meant to tell the rest of the world how crazy we are! ;)
heheheh
Wow this is so true, not the small details but the larger thoughts and desires. and the unending need for good food (with photos of course ;) )
Wonderful! Couldn't have said it better myself nor could anyone have, I imagine.
BTW I eat the same thing for breakfast everyday too, and it's not even Asian. And of the photos in my computer - 100% are food!
Welcome! I knew I was in trouble when hubby complained he could see his dinner on the internet before he even got to eat it!
Hi Tea,
I could just hear myself speaking from this post... I also got initiated to the world of food blogging sometime last November, hopping from one link to the other till I somehow managed to reach Traveler's Lunchbox. And I was just bowled over...there was a treasure trove out there just waiting to be explored.
And, exploring I have been going since then. Hours that should have gone towards researching my Thesis topic have been spent in researching food in general and food blogs in particular. Many a times I have been tempted to start a blog of my own, but the exceptional quality of all those blogs out there just makes me nervous.
So, congratulations on having taken the plunge and doing a great job at it....
Suparna
Bravo! We must have been twins in another life--either that, or food blogging ilicits identical mania in all of us. There were so many things in your chronology that I've experienced since I started my blog at the end of December. I have ingredients for dinners in my cabinets that I probably will never make because I fear they'll be ridiculed by other bloggers. I have to remind myself to cook what I like and not what's going to look good on my blog. Crazy! But fun. DH eats by himself a lot while I'm in the kitchen photographing my food. Poor guy.
Wonderful post. You have captured exactly the way that I have often felt, sitting alone at my computer, often late into the night, writing, writing, writing. Waking up in the morning thinking about what I'll cook today to put on my blog. I'll be visiting often.
Loved your Bolinas post - how can a little town that time forgot change so much and so little at the same time?
Anyone who blogs about Bolinas is my friend. As long as you don't give driving directions.
Plus, cmments from MC? Excuse me? I am drop-dead jealous!
One favor? Your link to me goes to the wrong URL, would you please switch it to blog.kitchenmage.com when you get a moment between everything else? thx
Wow, thanks everyone for all the great comments! Who knew that sharing my tales of unnatural blog obsession would get such a response.
Seren--Yeah, I didn't feel too bad about the landlord thing. Aren't we all guaranteed life, liberty, and access to a working oven?
Tadmack--Thanks! I remember you telling me that reading my novel made you hungry:-)
Jalapenogrl--Isn't it a hoot? I laugh every time I find myself trying to get better lighting on my photos of broccoli!
Vi--Yes, but we're no strangers to acts of great insanity, are we?
Anonymous--You can hide your email address, but I still know it's you:-) Thanks.
Darla--Fear not, you're never alone! I already think of you as my long lost blogging soul sister:-)
Sam--I probably shouldn't let on about how much fun we're all having either, eh? Thanks for the link, and kind words.
Clare--Yep, it's bigger than both of us. Can't fight it--and really, why try?:-)
Robyn--With food photos as gorgeous as yours, I'd give over my computer as well! Okay, fess up--what's your breakfast of choice?
Catherine--what a laugh! And I don't doubt it for a second.
Suparna--Thanks. I would definitely finish the thesis before beginning a blog--or you might be ABD forever!
Cyndi--Thanks. I look forward to exploring your blog (that cake looks delish).
Christine--Anyone who can make low carb Cherry Clafoutis is aces with me. I love that we're all out there, writing and dreaming of cooking.
Kitchenmage--All Bolinas secrets go with me to the grave! My next post is on MC (how crazy is that?). Just fixed the link. And you were my first non-friend/family comment, so thanks for that!
What a delightful read!!! You have a way with words, & I will be returning to read more! When Ms FM asked her dad & me to photograph some food at beloved restaurants from her childhood, we were very excited & worked hard to situate the food just so. It became all consuming, & we tried for just the right shot that would showcase the food perfectly, so I can relate to your obsession. Thanks for joining Bloggerville!
So funny! I totally relate to your post! Just discovered your blog and truly I am enjoying the ride!
My Dad and sister and I exchange daily "weather and catch-up" messages. Today I'm sending a link to YOUR post, "this is MY life". I'm just days from launching into Month 12 of doing this EVERY day and my real-life friends know that Kalyn's a teacher and Nupur is (hmm, she might not have said yet). A warm welcome to YOUR voice too!
I got your link from Sam, great blog, very entertaining I will drop by regularly Thank you
Whew! I had been starting to think I need an intervention but am now relieved to think that I'm merely a sane person with an obsession. Though I'm new to this and don't really consider myself a food blogger (rather a vegan recipe-writer), I see myself in so many of your details. What a gift you have with words! I look forward to looking around the rest of your blog and getting to know you (but not in a creepy, stalker kind of way!)
I got here via Sam's pointer--(thank you, Sam--good one!) and I have to say that you articulated a lot of my life since I started the food blogging thang last year.
Especially that bit about 80% of my photographs being of food--yeah. Kinda scary, that. Food and cats, and the kitchen and pictures of my old garden and the woods we used to own. Mostly food, though. A few of my kid. (She hates to have her picture taken, so I have to stalk her to get any.)
Anyhow--I am adding you to my links list--thanks for the great read!
You're so lucky to be doing what you love, and we're lucky to have you. I'm glad Sam pointed the way.
Thank God we are blessed with the ability to see the humor in our obsession!
What a cute post!
A quick note- there's nothing wrong with blogging about your experiences cooking up recipes featured on other food blogs.
Food and Thoughts has had many cute posts themed "Cooking with Bloggers" where she purposely shares a blogged recipe and recreates it. Features like this can help keep a blogger honest! ;)
This is just fantastic!
We're all a bit mad, I suppose. We carry a camera around not to snap the gogeous scenery, but in case we stop off to eat.
My husband has to build new shelves to hold the over-flow of cookbooks, but then there's empty space...so I buy more!
So...we're a little crazy. So what? We have fun!
And with that; welcome to our world!
Like many before me have commented, reading your story is almost cathartic -- I'm not the only one with this strange and wonderful obsession. I'm a month or so behind you, But many of our experiences run parallel. I too wrestled with feelings that with all the wonderful content out there, who would read ME? And I'm having the digital camera dilemma now. Six months ago I gave my boyfriend no end of grief for buying a camera phone -- now I wish he'd picked on that takes better pictures.
Thanks for sharing your story -- and expressing it so very well. I'll be back... I'm looking forward to exploring our joint obsession for a long time.
Yeah, you got it bad. (Like Sam says, though -- we all do.)
Hey! Those used to be my butchers too! Until I moved.
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one with neglected writing and editing piling up while I blog, read other blogs, check out food media, read more blogs, cook.... And how to explain to traditional media types that not tonight thanks, you're busy blogging about food?
Thanks for the post!
Oh how i laughed! though not a food blogger myself, my few guest spots for my sister's have sent me into a tizzy, and i'm finally going to try making my own stock next weekend, which all my friends think is just plain weird. can't wait to come back to your blog for more.
I loved your recap and can totally relate. I upgraded my cell phone today, just to get a camera phone so I can take pictures of food when I am out. It's a constant obsession. I barely cooked before food blogging. Now I cook much more than the two of us could ever eat.
The whole blogosphere has opened my eyes to foods I would never have tried before.
It's also causing me to buy items that would look good on my blog. When this obsession ends, I'll have an entire kitchen full of mismatched dinner ware. (hee hee)
And now I am thinking of taking cooking classes, because of posts I read on Sam's blog about how much she was enjoying her class and trying all the different foods.
I know my blog doesn't begin to compare to some of the great ones out there, but I feel it is improving every day.
And my cooking has definitely improved.
Thanks for a great read!
What a great read because I could identify with everything!
I now have a new camera for my food shots, I have to download all the all the photos (almost all food) off my notebook because it's slowing things down, my husband has had to tilt the lamp at our restaurant table closer to the plate so that i get a good photo, i bought new tea cups and spoons after seeing all the beautiful cutlery and crokery on other blogs...
I went through something pretty similar when I discovered food blogs last march. I was totally blown away and felt like I had to "catch up" with all the archives of many of these blogs. I must have spent at least 10 hours the first time I surfed through food blog after food blog.
There are many of us who eat the same thing for breakfast everyday. Coffee. Greek yogurt with honey if i remember. Toast and eggs if I'm lucky. Great post :)
ROFL - far far far too much that I recognized in that post
thanks to Sam & Jen I have "discovered" you. Welcome to the madness!
I love this. I go away to New York for a week, and come back to find this delightful post. Brava, my dear! You have clearly expressed the madcap, always stupendous journey of those of us who have started food blogs. Another one to add to the list: you know you've lost it when you're visiting one of the greatest cities in the world, and you're having a fabulous time, but some part of you feels bad that you're not having the chance to read your favorite food blogs for a week!
I'm honored to be one of the people you mentioned in this post. Right back at you.
Good job! I'm very impressed with your addiction to your food blog.. I really need to get my camera to start taking photos of food for my blog, and spend more time on it. Also, its fine to bash famous chefs on your blog, I've already made a comment or two about Rachael Ray..
Wonderful entry! I just celebrated my one month anniversary (blogiversay?) yesterday, and it's a wild ride. The photography has become an all out obsession. Thank you!
This is hilarious. It is incredibly similar to my last few months too. I came across The Travelers Lunchbox and my life hasn't been the same since.
I love your comments about the food going cold while you photograph it. I made a chocolate tart for a friend but when I gave it to her I had to explain why there was a slice cut out.
This was a delightful read. Found you through Sam. Looking forward to delving into more of your posts (when I'm not taking photos of rapidly cooling food or newborn baby lambs, of course). Best of luck to you with your new addiction, um, I mean obsession, or, er, drat, everybody's right--we're all a bit crazy! But we're smiling and laughing--and eating very, very well. : )
I followed a link here from Chez Pim and found this hilarious recap that could be my own experience with the world of food blogs. I'm so glad I'm not alone! Thanks.
Are you me? Because this sounds almost exactly like my life since Nov! I can't go anywhere without looking at things going, hmm... I wonder how that would look as a prop?
What fun! Great blog!
Just found this on Pim's blog. This is like reading my own diary, except way funnier. Thank you for this posting!
this post is just hilarious! brilliant!!! i guess we are all insane or at least pretty obsessed.
i can really relate to every single thing you wrote. i got was hooked on foodblogging pretty quickly too and i guess i went to every single thing you experienced.
i've had a more visatile and a way more healthy diet ever since plus i made a bunch of new friends in the so called blogosphere. your blos is already one of my favorites ...
This is wonderful. I felt like "we" are the collective "Borg" from Star Trek ;)
Like darlamay and cyndi, I started a blog around the same time as you, and you could be writing my history. I'm a writer, too (fiction) and I have to sternly discipline myself so that I only read food blogs for 45 minutes before I start working on my novel. Very true and funny post.
What a great post! And I definitely related to it. in fact I started my post the same time you did--I felt like I was reading my own diary!
good stuff
Genius, just that! Really witty and fun! I have just posted about wonderfull post!
I had some ideas about it, but now I am sure to be an obsessed food blogger...
we are a huge communty!!!
:-)))
Found you on Chez Pim, what a great post! Looks like I'm going to have to add another blog to my daily reads!
Thanks!
This is definitely the post of the century :-))) and, oh yes, all my answers to the 'are you an obsessed foodblogger' are positive.... ;-))
Hi Tea, it seems I'm a little late to the party! Thanks for such an enjoyable post. I must admit it's both funny and distressing to see so much of myself in your account... the lengths we go to for a website! At least now we all know we're not alone ;) Thank you for your lovely words about my site and a hearty welcome to this fantastic food-crazy community!
Dang, there's like and just about 51 comments going here, thought I should jump in and say hi, HI !!
Heh, somewhere in my archives there's a shot of Z standing in our kitchen sink, holding a flood light for me. Putt'em to work, I say.
Take care and hope all is better than well,
Biggles
Wow! I have been on the same rollercoaster. Yours is another example of blogs that are so good they make me nervous to blog myself. I have to not think about the audience and realize that I am happy to just have a record of the things I make. But oh how I wish for comments!
from sam to yours
my biggest prob is when I have guests
imagine me saying DONT EAT YET got to shot a pic
last time I was invited out I HAVE BEEN TOLD NOT TO BRING MY CAMERA...and was forbidden to talk about my food blog.
have i driven everyone crazy?
FYI: reading this entry and skimming your previous entries (especially the pictures) has made me get up off my ass and cook something!!! Thanks.
All so true... Whenever I do just about anything now, I think "How will it blog?" :)
And I'm always on the prowl for more photogenic plates. :)
Thank you for the mention. I, for one, am very glad that I got into food blogging the way I became a professional cook:
I was too naive to know what I was doing.
And I am so glad because eggbeater has kept me afloat through a treacherous time and continues to delight and surprise me around every sweet & savoury turn.
Welcome to our wild wonderful world.
(I know who you are. We have People in common.)
Thanks darling!
Reading of your blog obsession was an amuzing way to 'analise' my own obsession. And to loughing about taht :-)
hahahaha!! It's like looking in a mirror!
And NOW I see where I've gone wrong. I didn't know that all the other food bloggers have Kitchen-Aids! I didn't even realize one needed a Kitchen-Aid...
-Elizabeth
P.S. I not only have one mandolin, but two. Would anyone like to trade their extra Kitchen-Aid for a mandolin?
It's amazing! It's like reading myself through your words. I had to laugh about not eating until you take the perfect picture. I was timid about my food blog addiction as well. Thanks for speaking up.
I have bookmarked your blog (this is my first visit) and plan to return often.
Ahh yes, I can identify! Wonderful diary. Thank you for sharing! And thank you for linking up to my humble blog. I've added you to mine.:)
Yes, awesome post - captures the spirit of blogging. And you certainly didn't lie to your landlord, you are most definately a food writer.
Hey! Thanks for the comment after my shameful fishing... Those pretzels weren't worth the recipe but I'm going to work on it and I'll let you know when I have one that is.
Greetings from halfway around the world! I'm also a new food blogger and really did not know whether to laugh or cry reading your recap! You've clearly spoken for all our descents into food blogging insanity... Perhaps it's like AA - admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery? :) Looking forward to following your journey!
P.S. Your blog is always welcome to take my blog out for a jaunt in the playground :)
Tea ... I found your blog through a link from Gerald's at Foodite, and I'm so very glad I did! It's excellent! I so enjoyed reading about your adventures in blogging, and of course saw many reflections of my food-obsessed self in your confessions.
You are a remarkable writer. I'm so looking forward to reading many more of your posts!
Great essay - welcome to the wild world of food blogging!
This all sounds sooooo familiar.
My husband's head nearly spun off the first time I took a photo of my plate in a restaurant and explained to the waiter that I was a "food writer". LOL
Glad you're enjoying it all.
Here via Becks & Posh and plan to come back.
Tea, had to write and say how much I enjoyed this post. Sitting at my desk in Sydney, Australia, supposedly working, It's amazing how excited I am for someone on the other side of the Pacific who I don't even know! Your post is almost word for word my experience of the past month or so (except no blog from me as yet). So much fun to read the words of people all over the world who share such similar interests and enthusiasm. Oh, and how funny is Kitchen Aid obsession!!
You have catalogued my decent into food blogger hell. Am only half way there. Now I know what else i have to look forward to.
But heck at least we all eat well :)
My goodness I'm rather late to the party. What an engaging and adorable post - terribly charming, my dear! I'm sure that you're describing the feelings of many a blogger and blog fan out there. Well done.
And it is comforting to have company in the craziness, no?
I'm just discovering your blog and I am really enjoying it! This post (obvious by all the comments!) hit on some things all of us food bloggers relate to. (I cracked up about the 80% of our photos being of food.) Thanks for the great story and I can't wait to keep reading!
Tea,
There's probably not much that I can say here that hasn't been said already, but congratulations my dear!
With warmth and humour you have summarized the the experience of Every Blogger.
Cheers!
A belated welcome to the world of food blogging, and congratulations on an impressive start! Absolutely loved this post and relate to it all too well!
Tea,
Another fellow SF food blogger! I have only just started blogging so thanks for making me realize I'm not so crazy. You have a wonderful start, I'll be sure to keep visiting!
I found your blog through a link and love your description of the process. I wish you many adventures in the kitchen which result in good pictures and lovely posts. Looking forward to reading more.
So great to see sooo many obsessive food blogger, cant wait for my digicam to arrive, I bet you know what photos il be taking LOL
Amed
____________________
web directory Free diabetic recipes
Hilarious, Tea!
Pille (a newcomer to your blog)
Welcome to the world of the food obsessed, it's good to have you!
I still remember my very first comment, it was like an electric shock! I think I ran around the house for hours just grinning like a madman and re-reading that one little line.
And now I find myself wondering... "If I take this contract, will it leave me time to make that casserole?" If the answer is "no", I usually refer the client to someone else...
It's an addiction.
Hi i like your writting, we wish continue to boot your site is very useful
Wow..it's a nice blog.Awesome post. It makes me feel like you were sitting next to me, telling me the story in person.
Hi i am meila i am really impressed with your blog i love to cook myself and have some recipes on my blog you might like to look at hears the link
http://memeschoc.blogspot.com/
Bye
I really liked your blog I just started a blog myself I call it "Free Advice And Tips On How To" would welcome all to come by and leave their comments here
http://www.valuereports.com/blog
rock n roll
"How I Lost My Mind but Found My Kitchen" so provocative tittle. Love it
You know what? never ending food story. So interesting..
Thanks for posting, I really liked reading your most recent post. I think you should post more often, you clearly have natural ability for blogging
Hi, great post. A long post :) How long did it take you to do that. I got a new digital camera. The badboy is freeze, shock and water proof. Could use it anywhere. Great stuff. Will be viditoing more often.
Regards
Peter
www.cookyourselfthinrecipes.com
its a great food blog.i like it. post is good.
I just started writing a food blog yesterday...in fact, it hasn't even actually been about food yet, per se but why I am doing this, and I got a really big kick out of your own journey....I just hope I can find the time to be AS obsessed as you've been. But thanks for a fun read.
Post a Comment