Back Again!!!

Guess who's back? Back again! Yes, that would be me. I'm going to be back to publishing daily blog posts here beginning with this one. I've missed writing on this blog and I am very excited to be back contributing to what I consider my food journal, scrapbook, photo album, and recipe book that I began nearly six years ago now. I cannot promise I won't miss the odd day or two or that I will be able to keep this going for another six years but I will certainly try my best to contribute to this blog again!

I'd like to give my fellow and patient readers a little insight as to why I stopped blogging for awhile.
At the time I was away from home working. This job had me working 65+ hours a week which didn't leave a lot of time nor energy for blogging or even gathering material to blog about. I ended up becoming burnt out and a little drained and unmotivated. I couldn't even continue to write about my days at work because they seemed insignificant and I was no longer passionate about the work I was doing. I did turn to photography as a hobby during this time, but for once instead of photographing dishes I was proud of making, I photographed nature and landscapes on my walks. Here are a few photos of what I've been up to the past few months.

2000 Posts!!!

I have reached 2000 posts on this blog now! There are some days where I debate quitting because I have no time and lately my blog entries have been very short and limited but it's still impressive I managed to have 2000 posts on here over the past 5 1/2 years!!!

No, I Did Not Quit

No I did not quit blogging. I've been very neglecting lately, but I have not quit completely. I have been very busy and tied up in other things. I don't really want to give any excuses as to why I have been so AWOL lately, I can only hope I will do better in the future. Please be patient, and stay tuned. There will be more to come!

Blog Book 2012

So my blog book of 2012 is finally finished! It has been a work in the making for a long time now. It is a lot of painstaking effort on my parent's behalf, as they proofread and edit, and send me corrections, and reformat, and whatnot. It's not as simple as just printing out the pages - first the posts need to be made more book-friendly and I want to ensure they are 100% correct before printing. They should be, since they are published blog posts, but sometimes I miss mistakes. Also, to save on printing fees, it is helpful to downsize the font or condense posts. 

I was very happy with my blog book from 2011 (see {Blog Book 2011} ). This time we went with a different publishing company, and aside from a slightly smaller size, there are not many differences. The cover is still purple of course, with different cover photos and a new dedication. I cannot wait for blog book 2013 - hopefully it will not take quite as long.

Thanks again Mom and Dad! :)

Change of Scenery

Well, I am off on yet another culinary adventure. Those of you who know me well know exactly where I am headed and why, and are beyond excited for me. For those of you who don't know me so well, I will share a few details without giving out too much information.

In order to further my culinary experience and skills, I will be completing an internship at a reputable estate in a foreign country. I will be cooking at a castle, and that is no joke! I will be an intern cook at the estate's dining establishments, gaining experience in a fine dining restaurant, a bar, breakfast cookery, afternoon tea ceremonies, as well as weddings and special events. So I will gain lots of experience in an array of different areas.

I am beyond excited as well as a little nervous. I just landed in my destination country, and will be heading to the estate soon. My plan for this blog for the next four and a half months is to turn it into more of a journal. I will be documenting the events of my day, everyday - what I have learned, tried, experienced, tasted, etc. You will see some of my emotions come out, and even on my 'days off' (does such a thing exist for an intern cook??), I am sure I will never be sitting around twiddling my thumbs and will find some food-related experience to blog about.

So for the next little while, my blog may not contain as many recipes, but I will try to keep it interesting with lots of photos of not just dishes I have created or ate, but also scenery and other interesting encounters. 

I will choose an appropriate title to accompany each day’s post, instead of just writing the date.

Change of Career

I am beginning to rethink my decision to pursue my passion in the culinary field as a career. This may come as a surprise, especially considering the 1300+ consecutive blog posts on this site. Well, have no fear, my passion for food and baking hasn't dwindled - in fact it is stronger than ever! That is part of the reason I hesitate to turn this into a career. I definitely want to keep this as a passion, and something I thoroughly enjoy. I worry that entering into the restaurant scene - a place that tends to be hot, sweaty, fast-paced, stressful, dangerous, loud, and vulgar will destroy my passion. A place that demands hours of tireless dedication, extensive use of the back, hands, and legs, coming in early and staying late, working holidays, starting with low wages, and absolute perfection. Where is the love in that? Do I really want to spend my next few years constantly exhausted, stressed, and sore; overworked and underpaid? The answer is no. Of course I will continue blogging and cooking at home, where it is a favorite hobby and stress reliever. But right now I need to take some time to figure things out, and decide what type of career I would like to pursue in the future. 

Three Weeks of Posts

By this point (it was July 1st when I wrote this) I just wanted to take the time to write an article to shed light on the difficulties, frustrations, and planning that come with a three week vacation and not knowing when or how well you will be able to access the internet. It isn't easy prepping three weeks worth of posts over just a couple of days - and though my mind has endless possibilities of ideas, I don't want to bore my audience, and I also don't currently have time to be typing up page long blog write-ups, locating pictures, linking things, etc. Yes, I definitely should have started this process earlier. Luckily, I always keep my stash of ready-made posts ready to go, in case of those days when I really don't even have time to think about my blog - but I usually prepare in advance for those days anyway. However, I did not want to simply use all of those posts, because I may need them some day, and I would have to make a stash of new emergency blog posts upon my return anyway. But it was nice knowing they were there to fall back on. 

These past few days I have been typing ferociously, snapping photos, and reminiscing. It takes a lot of careful planning, but luckily this blog website makes that quite easy to do. I suppose I could have taken a blogging break, but I am determined not to stop over 1000+ days just so I can take a vacation for my own pleasure. The good thing about all these pre-prepped blog posts is that I can just sit back and relax for three weeks and not worry at all about my blog, having to bake, or having to find something to post about. And if I choose to make a new post during my vacation time because something really interesting happened, so be it.

Here I am on day 20 of 22 - let's see if I can conjure up two more blog posts to go! 
P.S. Have you noticed my blog posts have been going on at the same time everyday recently?

Post One Thousand!!!

Well today marks the one thousandth day in a row that I have posted something on this blog! I began this blog 1000 days ago today, with the intention of creating a permanent collection of all of the recipes and foods I have made and eaten; and a way for me to share my passion for food with others. I cannot believe I have done one thousand posts already! It does not seem like that long, and it has seemed quite effortless - except holding back hungry taste testers while I get that picture for my blog! I am certainly nowhere near running out of ideas or things to make anytime soon!

Anyways, to celebrate the occasion, I got my wisdom teeth out today. That means I won't really be eating much for awhile, and what I do eat will probably consist largely of smoothies and other forms of purées. Anyone else care for some purée recipes? 

So I'll keep this short, but thanks again to all my readers, without you, I'd merely be keeping record of my baking, and not sharing my creations with others. Here's to another thousand consecutive days! 

April Fools

In case you didn't already realize this: APRIL FOOLS!!!!! Yesterday's post was a complete hoax. I don't know if I fooled any of you or not, if not I guess you just know me too well. There is no way I would just quit blogging like that cold turkey. Well, I guess the post wasn't completely untrue, as I am quite busy and sometimes do find it difficult to continue baking and blogging. And yes, it may mean that I borrow some things my mother made to post about, or many of my posts do pertain to breakfast (it if my favorite meal of the day - and what's wrong with breakfast creations?). However, I will continue blogging even if some of my posts are shorter or more rushed, I will always find the time to post. It may mean registering automatic updates for a week, or relying on articles I have previously written instead of something I have recently made. But I will continue posting daily for the time being, and posting as many recent creations as I can find the time to make. For those of you who follow me daily, thank you! I appreciate it. But I didn't start this blog with the sole purpose of gaining popularity. I mainly began this blog for myself, as I way to keep track of everything I make, my favorite recipes, what works and what doesn't, and my photos. So of course I will continue posting everyday; after all, I posted in French for a month, didn't I?

Anyways, I did promise to post something cool today, and although it is not recent, I have never shared it before. This is a Mickey Mouse cake I made a few years back, mainly for my father during a rough time. I had received the Mickey Mouse pan from someone and was excited to use it. When decorated cleverly, this cake doesn't just have to be Mickey Mouse, it can be transformed into other characters as well. I went with the classic Mickey look - red shirt, yellow shoes, but instead of black, I used chocolate for the skin. Here's to another 1000 days of consecutive blogging! 

Blogging Break

For those of you who have not noticed (first of all thank you), my blog posts have been, well, lacking lately. They've been shorter, and don't feature complete dishes or the impressive sweet desserts I usually make. A lot of things I have been featuring have been either things my mother actually made (thanks Mom) or breakfast items - as I may not have much time to bake, but I always need to eat breakfast, which is quick to make and easy to experiment with. But I'm sure all of you are growing just as tired as I am of more overnight oatmeal recipes, which really all stem from the same one recipe. The truth is, I just haven't had enough time lately to cook or bake, and even  if I do, I then run out of time to properly take nice photos, upload them, and do a reasonable blog write-up. 

So it greatly saddens me to announce this, especially after 984 consecutive days of posts (I'm so close to 1000!), but I just cannot keep up this blog. At least for right now, I'll just have to take a short break (hopefully). If all goes well, I should be blogging again in the summer. Right now though, I just have too much going on to be able to commit the proper care and attention to my blog. I apologize to my dedicated readers, but I'd much rather not post at all for a while than post low-quality updates. 

Right now, between balancing my schoolwork, upcoming exams, a job, extracurricular activities, and all the other slew of events coming my way, I'm basically having to choose between blogging and getting enough sleep, one choice which is obviously having (or at least will have) a negative effect on my health. So I've thought about this for awhile, and kept blogging to a point, but now I must say I really have to stop for awhile.

I'm not happy about this decision, but it's something I really have to do right now. That isn't to say I won't pop up every once in awhile with a post of something cool I recently made, but it sure won't be daily. And hopefully I can return to consistent postings in the summer. My last post will be tomorrow, where I will share a rather cool creation I managed to conjure up the time to make.

Farewell for now!

Blog Gone International

Lately my blog has been receiving more attention than ever before. I'm not exactly sure why or how it happened, but everyday I am getting more and more pageviews! I know I have gained quite a few viewers through word of mouth, family, friends, and social media sites. My audience has certainly expanded as well; now not only do I have viewers in my country, as well as a few friends and relatives in a select few other countries, but I also have viewers from over ten different countries, covering four different continents. That's pretty impressive considering all my posts are published in only one language, but I suppose English is becoming increasingly popular. Much of my attention has been coming from searches. The most popular searches among my blog posts lately seem to include my Easter posts, my snake cupcakes, my Catan cupcakes, and a few of my breads. My Big Bang Theory cakes seem to be generating quite a bit of attention as well. Overall, the posts with the most pageviews include Figgy Pudding, 40th Anniversary Cake, Calculator Cake, Link Cake, and Owl Cupcakes, among others (I am noticing a cake theme going on here). I also noticed that when entered into a popular search engine, my blog has recently gained a nice little description, "A blog about cooking, baking, cake decorating, recipes, and many culinary-related aspects updated daily by a young, ambitious baker." I am not sure who wrote that or how that got there, but I really like that description, and think it is very kind and accurate! 

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of my fellow blog readers, whether you are a casual reader, just happened to stumble upon one useful post, or are a daily reader of my blog - thank you! I appreciate each and every page view. I originally started this blog as a way for me to keep track of all of the recipes I have made, and organize all of my pictures in an easy to find format. I also wanted to share with family and friends who didn't always get to sample every one of my baked goods, or did and wanted the recipe. But now, my blog has certainly expanded into much more than that, and I am so glad others are finding my blog helpful, enjoyable, and entertaining, as that really makes me want to continue blogging and improving on my baking and blogging skills even more. When I know I am sharing with others, I become that much more dedicated. So thank you all! :) 

Blog Book 2011

Well, here is my blog book that finally arrived! Actually, it arrived a few weeks ago, but I just didn't have a chance to feature it since I have been baking so much lately. Overall, I am quite pleased with the quality of the book. It is a really nice keepsake for me to have, and is full of tasty memories and tantalizing photos. I have no idea how long I will continue with this blog, and this will be a lovely souvenir of it in many years to come. My biggest dilemmas here were choosing the cover photo and the back cover photo. I finally decided on some cupcakes I made and a picture of the blue ribbon I won for my chocolate cake. I also became a little frustrated with the dedication, as the character limit was very short, and I had so much more to say. Finally, choosing the cover style was easy. As my blog background is my favorite color, purple, I naturally progressed to a purple floral design. 
There are a few formatting things that I do not particularly enjoy, but they are not terrible, and they really are just small blips in the overall detail. For example, my father was quite frustrated with the lack of editing options and html codes or something like that. The book squeezed a few pictures in, started things on the wrong line, and in one case, changed my listed recipe to paragraph form (I went back ad checked it, that was not a format change we made!) Other than those few little things, I am overall very happy with the book. It doesn't have the fluorescent purple and green colors of online, and the photos are not as big and beautiful, but the book is full color with big, glossy pages. It really showcases my blog nicely. One more thing, which is completely my fault, as I did preview the entire book and miss this. But the final post of the year, my Ollie-Bollen from December 31st, 2011, was not included. It turns out I had to include the next day in the dates to print, in order to receive that post as well. It would have been a nice finish to the book, but oh well, I'll just include it at the beginning of 2012!

Blog Format Changes

Recently there have been some changes made to the format of my blog posts. Most viewers probably have not noticed them, because all of the changes have been made to my posts published in the year 2011. Actually, I think almost every one of those posts has been changed. This may seem like a lot, but keep in mind I only began my blog on July 23rd, 2011, so really it is less than half a year worth of posts. Why so many changes? Well, I have finally had some time to work on my Christmas present, which requires some extensive page editing. To be honest, my father did the vast majority of this page editing, as he is much, much better with computers than I am, and understands how things like that work. Some examples of how he changed the pages include altering lists, so they do not appear as one straight list, but a shorter, paragraph-form list; changing the location or size of pictures; changing the placement of test; and general proofreading and editing. I am very grateful for all of my father's work here, as he spent a lot of time perfecting everything. 
This still doesn't answer the question why, though. Well, this is the process that had to be taken to publish my blog into a book. That's right, there are websites where you can enter your blogs web address, make all the editing changes, choose a cover, choose a cover photo, write a dedication, etc., and they will print out the book for you and send it to you, and do it much more nicely than if I went to print out the pages myself and staple them together. Why do I want to turn my online blog into a book? Yes, it is true that online is a very convenient and easy format to work with, but everyone knows the dangers of technology. I still have this incessant worry in the back of my mind that my blog will somehow disappear or be deleted, so I like to have a hard copy. Hard copies are good for other reasons too, they can be more portable, they are nicer and easier to look through for ideas, and you find things you miss online when you have a solid copy in your hand. Having a hard copy will also allow me to share my blog with others, who (surprisingly) do not have internet access or computer access. 
So I am beginning with the first year of my blog, really only six months, for my Christmas present last year, and next year I will probably print off 2012 since that year is now finished. These books are actually not too pricey, but the value of the blog to me is priceless. That is one of the main reasons for all of the formatting though, to condense blog posts in order to condense the book so I can print less pages, which will make a big difference when payment is by the page. I will feature my blog book on a post coming soon, to show you how it turned out!