True Life: I’m a Food Blogger

Last March I started a food blog called Things I Don’t Want to Eat. When I got married in 2006, my mother-in-law asked everyone who was invited to our wedding to contribute their favorite recipes so she could put them together for us in a book.

In honor of our anniversary last Spring, and more to the point, to try to convince myself to eat at home more and save money during the belt-tightening recession, I decided I would cook my way through the Recipe Book. With the added incentive of writing about it in a blog, a la Julie & Julia, I thought I might actually do it.

At first I was just going to go through and do the recipes I thought sounded good, but a friend convinced me it would be funnier if I did all of them, whether I thought I’d like them or not. And I’m a sucker for funny. What this means is that every time I hated something/screwed it up, I would be slamming someone I know and love, and who quite likely might read about it in print. Hilarious!

It’s been nine months now, and I am very close to done with the book. I average about 10 recipes/month that I blog about, and at this point I not only have a few new magnificent meals to add to my repertoire, I also have some very devoted followers. And closing in on the end of the project, I can say I have had the following realizations:

1. People love this stuff. I’m not much of a foodie, but others are. People I haven’t talked to in years are absolutely avid followers.

2. I am a picky eater. I didn’t realize this before, but having reader after reader point it out to me has brought it home. Also, having my husband actively love everything I turn my nose up at, that brings it home, too.

3. Onions are fascinating. Everyone has a tip to help you cut them without burning your eyes. For the record: wearing contacts, having someone else cut them, or rubbing lemon on the cutting board/knife are my suggestions.

4. If there is a mistake to make, I will make it. I have tried to boil oil, drowned a flan, killed brownies with a butter substitute, and set my kitchen on fire. Given any two choices, I am going to make the wrong one.

5. People love it when you write about them. I usually send links to the contributor after I wrote them up, and boy does it make people happy. Even if I screw up their recipe royally–sometimes even especially then–as they find it doubly hilarious.

6. Keep a lid around when you are cooking with oil. Best way to stomp out a grease fire (which can happen just inside a pot if the grease catches): throw a lid on it. Also, don’t keep your fire extinguisher behind the stove–you’ll have to reach through the flame to get it. And that’s bad.

7. People love sweets. I can lose my mind all I want about a good appetizer, but no one is going to care like they do if it’s a big chocolate pie. It’s just the way of the world.

8. I like cooking. I didn’t used to, but the blog has made me much more adept in the kitchen. Well, maybe not adept. I still set fires. But I’m getting there.