Why did you start blogging?
I started this blog in 2002 to keep track of some of the recipes I was making for a low carb diet. I neglected the blog for a while and then decided to start back up to keep track of some of my favorite recipes.
What camera are you using for your photos?
Whatever camera that is within reach so it's usually my phone. I usually take photos using my iPhone and email them to myself. When I'm not lazy, I pull out a Canon T1i (or 500d) with either the 18-55mm kit lens or a 50mm macro lens or a Canon SD1400 compact digital camera. There are a few photos in around September/October 2009 that were taken with a Nikon D40.
Photos prior to 2009 were taken with a Sony DSC-H3 superzoom camera and those prior to 2006 were taken with an Canon Digital Elph S200.
Do you edit your photos?
I wish I was that disciplined. The truth is that I've tried using Light Room, Photoshop and even GIMP but they were too advanced for me. What's up with this thing called "layers?" I simply take a lot of photos and if I'm lucky, I will end up with a few good photos. A few photos get simple (easy) touchups in Picasa.
Can I use your photos or recipes on my website, Facebook, or Blog?
I didn't watermark my photos because I didn't think they were good enough that anyone would want to use them but over the last several years, I've come across several of my photos and recipes featured on other sites without any credit to me. I've even seen people post their own recipes and instead of using their own photos, they use my photos. I had someone post a carrot cake recipe using both my pictures and theirs. I've even had another blogger contact me about my apple butter recipe being posted verbatin on Facebook page. The blogger asked the Facebook owner to properly credit and link back to me.
So if you would like to use one of my photos or recipes, either in whole or adapted, please contact me. I will probably say yes to your request. I only ask that you link back to me and credit me. Please don't represent your recipe by using my photo. I think it's misleading. I am always looking for new recipes to try out and I often select the recipe to try by looking at a photo of the finished product. I think it is highly misleading to post "your" salsa recipe and then use a picture you borrowed from google images. I had someone tell me that they did not steal a picture from my blog (and never heard of my blog), they "found" it on google images. I'm not trying to be mean. I love sharing and spreading great recipes. I never say no when someone asks me for a recipe. I don't have any secret recipes that I'm hiding from everyone.
What is your approach to food styling?
My approach is to focus on and display real food. The food is not perfect. I am not obsessed with the well-placed crumb or the perfectly looped noodle. I don't style my food. The food is simply cooked and eaten. Everything is edible. I didn't even like elaborate plating in culinary school. One of the rookie mistakes some of the students made was to do intricate designs on their plates. Plating should look nice but should not require too much handling and must be easily recreated several hundred times. We always aimed for some height and tried to combine a variety of textures and colors. And colors must be natural. How common is real blue food? I'm not talking about blueberry blue either.
Food presentation for a food blog is slightly different than food plating for a restaurant. Most of the time I am simply blogging about one element of the meal and not cooking all the sides. Sometimes, I will have sides but the item that I am blogging about is not usually the item that is placed at the front (or the six o'clock position) and I want the item I am blogging about in the foreground.
My everyday dishware is Maison by Over and Back. All the pieces are rather square-ish. It is what I usually reach for when I am ready to plate. I also like the look of food in its cooking vessel.
What do you like to blog about?
Blogging is hard work. Most posts require several hours of planning, cooking, testing, writing, downloading, uploading, typing and revising. It is not easy to try to come up with new recipes to try all the time. I do try my best to blog about hard to find recipes and write step-by-step instructions for the many unwritten dishes out there instead of just blogging about what I had for dinner last week. Before I could even start a recipe, I have to text, call, email and track down several of my family and friends and haggle (threaten) them into talking to me and revealing their secrets.
I will occasionally blog about some of my favorite recipes developed by otherss, about my quest to find the perfect recipe for an ordinary dish or even about some interesting meals I've had at a restaurant.