Posted in Fun Food Bites, tagged 2012 WordCount Blogathon, wordle on May 28, 2012 | 4 Comments »
For those who celebrate or commemorate it, I hope you have a wonderful Memorial Day. Today many of us in the WordCount Blogathon are posting a Wordle, a word cloud design of popular words used on your blog or website. I got a kick out of the fact tha two of my largest (and, I’m guessing, most used) words are “meat” and “cream.”
Enjoy, and head on over to Wordle.net to create your own word cloud for your blog, website, or Delicious account. Come back here and post a link to it, if you like.
Posted in Fun Food Bites, Writing, tagged blogging advice, wordcount blogathon on May 23, 2012 | 7 Comments »
Photo courtesy Flickr user jonmatthew photography
The Blogathon’s second theme day asks us to reflect on what we’ve learned as bloggers. If we were to start blogging today, what would we do differently?
There is one thing above all others that I would change: I would pull a Lindsey Buckingham and go my own way.
There is a lot of blogging advice out there. Some of it is contradictory, like the number of times you should post a week. Some successful bloggers recommend posting three times a week, while other just as successful bloggers say to post once a week.
Some of the advice is standard. Stick to your topic. Post on the same days of the week every week. Organize your thoughts into easily readable lists.
Some of it is organizational. Write and schedule your posts ahead of time. Keep an editorial calendar. Regularly host guest bloggers or submit your own guest blogging posts to other sites.
It’s easy to get caught up in all the advice, especially when most, if not all of it, is very good advice. But here’s the question: What advice works best for you and your goals, and what advice can you ignore?
Continue Reading “If I started blogging today…(Blogathon Theme Day #2)
Posted in Fun Food Bites, tagged haikus, wordcount blogathon on May 21, 2012 | 4 Comments »
It’s Haiku Monday, a WordCount Blogathon tradition. In the past, I’ve written about chocolate and kitchen mishaps. This year I was inspired by summer berries.
Juicy, tangy, bright
In coffee cakes, scones, crisps, jams
Sweet summer berries.
If you’re so moved, please share your own haiku below. I’d love to read them.
Posted in Baltimore, Fun Food Bites, tagged candy kitchen, cruisin' event, maryland, ocean city on May 19, 2012 | 4 Comments »
I’m down the Maryland shore for the Cruisin’ Ocean City event, a 4-day car show where the the streets are loud and packed with the low, dull roar of gunning cars.
We actually didn’t come for the car show, but the old cars are parked everywhere and many of their drivers are constantly cruising down route one.
I’m not a car person. Having to drive down busy roads is actually one of the worst chores in the world, I think. But even for me, it was hard not to be impressed with some of these old cars, especially their bright colors (construction cone orange, mint green and silver, sunny yellow) and sleek, shiny chrome exteriors.
So my photography practice continues with a few pictures of the cars, as well as one of my favorite Ocean City institutions: Candy Ktichen.
Posted in Design and DIY, Fun Food Bites, tagged basil, chives, making an herb planter box, planting herbs, rosemary, thyme on May 18, 2012 | 5 Comments »
The best way to ensure you’re using fresh herbs in your cooking is to grow your own. I’ve cut fresh herbs from my parents’ plants before, but they start to wilt or get too moist only a day or two after I’ve brought them home.
The good news for garden novices like me is that making an herb planter box is incredibly easy. With my mom’s help, I made three boxes using a 24″ wooden planter box, a plastic window box liner with holes in the bottom for drainage, potting soil, a small garden shovel, and some favorite fresh herbs (in this case, rosemary, basil, thyme, and chives).
Posted in Fun Food Bites, Writing, tagged career change, life transitions, secondact, wordcount blogathon on May 17, 2012 | 5 Comments »
Photo courtesy antwerpenR on FlickR
Last week Michelle Rafter, founder of the WordCount Blogathon and a writer for the website SecondAct, which is geared towards those over 40, asked Blogathoners to write about their “second acts”: risks they’ve taken, changes they’ve made, or revelations that have come to them in the second half of their lives.
To me there is nothing more inspiring than a good reinvention story. I love Eat Pray Love. I often pick up Po Bronson’s What Should I Do With My Life?, a collection of stories about people who are finding their professional purpose, even though I’ve read the book several times now. I write profiles more than any other type of article because I like to hear people’s stories.
So even though Michelle will be linking to a few of the Blogathon posts on SecondAct.com, I can’t resist directing you to a few of them here.
Continue Reading “WordCount Blogathons write about their “second acts”
Posted in Fun Food Bites, tagged rose bush on May 13, 2012 | 5 Comments »
To all the moms out there, including my lovely mom, I hope you have a wonderful day!
Posted in Fun Food Bites, tagged bike with jackie, gadget girl tips, jennifer willis writer, mridu khullar relph writer, outlaw garden on May 4, 2012 | 2 Comments »
This year more than 250 people are participating in the 2012 WordCount Blogathon. That’s more than 7,750 blog posts that will be written by the Blogathon group this month alone.
I’ve only briefly skimmed through the list of bloggers, but here are a few new-to-me blogs that caught my eye so far. None of them write about food, though one is about growing food. But I like to read about a variety of topics, and I know you do too. I hope you find a good read here that fits your interests.
Continue Reading “5 blogs to explore from 2012 Blogathon participants”
Posted in Fun Food Bites, tagged big summer potluck, gluten free girl, the ivory hut, three many cooks, wordsxo on August 6, 2011 | 8 Comments »
Scenes from the Big Summer Potluck 2011
I didn’t plan to stop blogging for an entire month. It just worked out that way.
I could tell you that it’s because I was busy with my move or my summer class or my thesis. Or that my new place has a very old stove with two ovens that are covered in splattered grease inside, which doesn’t make for pretty, appetizing photographs. Or that I write for work and for school and that writing for the blog sometimes feels like a bit too much writing.
All of these reasons are true, but at the same time they’re excuses. I stopped writing here because after two years of blogging, I’m unsure where I want to go next with My Morning Chocolate.
Continue Reading “Big Summer Potluck and What’s Next for MMC?”
Posted in Fun Food Bites, tagged budget cooking, budget recipes, culinate on July 2, 2011 | 5 Comments »
Yesterday Culinate – an online magazine that “helps people put food at the center of their lives” – published my story on eating adventurously on a budget. Head on over to Culinate to read the full story.
