It’s my birthday. Okay, it’s not my birthday, but the food blogger recipe writer side of me turns one today. Well, at least the public side of me turns one today. So, to celebrate my blog one year on, I thought I’d recap some of my favourite and most significant posts from the last year of becoming a food blogger.
The First Post One Year On– Beef Stroganoff
How else would I celebrate one year on without acknowledging my first post? If you look back at all my earlier posts, you’ll find little else but recipes without actual recipe cards. (I need to get around to updating those older blog posts.)
This Beef Stroganoff recipe describes the dish’s origins and ingredients in detail. It was the place I started and returned to when I needed guidance on how to write a recipe-related blog post.
This was an important recipe for me as it was one of the first things I’d ever cooked for my family. I knew nothing of the dish or what I was doing. Yet, armed with a recipe from a cookbook, I embarked on a journey that led to becoming a chef. It seems poetic, but it was totally unintentional in making it my first blog post. Still, history might tell it differently.
An Early Success – Mint & Cucumber Salad
My recipes were often simple sides or main dishes. I did this because it’s what I had for dinner, and I found it easy to build into my working week. This was especially important to me since I spent most weekends away and found it challenging to find time to cook. So, I had to maximise my productivity during the week to get my blogging life off the ground. One year on, I’m still going.
This was one of those simple salads that I worried no one would be interested in. However, it was one of the most viewed posts I’d shared in the early days. I don’t have exact numbers, but I have memories. I remember wondering if I would need to include more simple salads in my repertoire to gain traction.
A Mother’s Day Treat – Chipotle Chicken Enchiladas
A few days ago, I celebrated Mother’s Day with my mum and the rest of my family. For dinner, we had chicken enchiladas, corn on the cobs grilled with my BBQ Seasoning, and nachos with homemade guacamole and tomato salsa.
It wasn’t a random choice. Every year on her birthday and Mother’s Day, we have these chipotle chicken enchiladas because my mum loves them. It may not be the most diet-friendly meal, but who cares when they taste this good? My mum certainly doesn’t.
A Tale of Two Attempts – Halloumi & Broccoli Sweet Chilli Stir Fry
My desire to post every aspect of a dish’s ingredients has become the norm with my blog since we’re looking back at things one year on from starting. Whether it’s a homemade Thai green curry paste, a BBQ spice mix, or a detailed how-to-cook guide. I also wanted to do the same with this recipe and a homemade sweet chilli sauce.
I had a recipe written out, planned, and tested it using this Halloumi stir fry. The first attempt was on a weekday after work, and the chilli sauce was delicious, if only a little more spicy than other sweet chilli sauces. However, when I tried to imitate the result again, it tasted like sugary water.
Failure is inevitable at times. But what made this recipe worse was who I cooked it for then. My girlfriend at the time loved Halloumi and was eager to try it and for me to cook this dish for her. She’d waited all week to try it, and it was hardly worth the wait when it came time to taste it.
A Bad Second Try – Rump Steaks with Chimichurri
I love cooking steak and love this chimichurri recipe. However, it’s not on this list because I liked the recipe. It’s here because of the visual element since photography is one of those areas that caused me the most pain at the start. In fact, one year on, I don’t think much has changed.
My first attempt at this recipe went well, and the quick picture I took to show off to my non-internet friends looked much better than the version that appears on the internet. The lighting, however, for this first attempt was terrible. My best friend, a professional wildlife photographer, wouldn’t tolerate such a mistake, so another attempt was needed. But it turns out that trying to recreate a picture-perfect moment isn’t easy.
A Reel Experiment – English Garden Salad with English Mustard Vinaigrette
If you’re on the internet in 2024, you might have noticed Instagram’s new algorithm. It’s built to favour reels, so I tried to hop on that trend. Not only that, but a friend of mine was also building a small following on YouTube with his short videos. So, it seemed logical to follow everyone else footsteps.
The reel wasn’t bad for a first attempt. However, 2 or 3 more reels followed. Then, I went on holiday, struggled to rebuild the momentum, and found myself bogged down by the editing. Still, one year on, I might have found someone new to help me. So watch this space.
One Year On and Still Only One List – 10 Simple Side Salads
The actual name of this post was much longer, but I’ve condensed it for the subtitle. I read somewhere that a good list post was necessary to build traffic. However, having only posted one list hasn’t helped me prove or disprove this theory.
I’ve always planned to write more list posts but can never seem to connect 10 items together. What bothers me the most are all those lists that recommend things that don’t belong together simply to make a list. Mashed potato and curry do not belong together, and I will never be convinced of them. Nor should dauphinoise find themselves associated with an Italian ragu. Yet bloggers do it, but I won’t.
Is This Viral? – Lebanese Roast Chicken Thighs
There’s no doubt about it; one year on, this is my most successful post to date. The next highest viewed post comes nowhere near overtaking the view count, and at least once a day, I receive a Pinterest notification telling me somebody else has saved the pin.
I don’t know what has made it so popular since I have other Lebanese and Middle Eastern recipes. Nor do I think the picture is one of my best photography pieces. However, as I said earlier, photography isn’t my strong suit. But whatever the reason, the chicken was delicious.
If anyone has any idea why this post has gone as close to viral as I’ve ever known, please let me know. Either way, I’m happy to have seen some form of success, no matter how small it may appear compared to longer-running blogs.
One Year On And It’s Not Just Recipes – Salt, to Taste
This was the start of me posting other content that wasn’t just recipes. It was meant to be informative but turned into an essay. It was inspired by the book “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat” by Samin Nosrat. A great informational book for beginner cooks and chefs alike. However, it seems to have become a manifesto for my blog.
Likewise, I planned to post more opinion-based articles, such as this one about British food. However, the research took a long time, and I found it hard to balance with my other commitments. These early articles formed the basis of what became informational posts and how-to tutorials.
These posts have made my life much easier as a blogger since they take less time than the time needed to plan and practice a recipe. They also allow me to learn about new things. More importantly, they gave me a platform to talk about things in more detail than I could in a recipe. Who would want to read 1000 words on paprika when making patatas bravas.
Milestones One Year On – My 100th Post
As we celebrate my blog one year on, it’s only written to look at the first post if it’s kind. It was a post celebrating my 100th post. In the post, I explain why it was such an important milestone and makes more sense of my short, unplanned break. However, this post led to the creation of a new category.
I’ve been meaning to update my front page for the last year, and a year on, I still haven’t touched it. However, one of the features on my homepage will be an about me section, in which I’ll include a diary section where readers can follow my journey as a food blogger.
The success and popularity of this post allowed me to explore this idea further. As a result, it has become a monthly target. One diary post per month will enable me to keep those interested in my blog updated with small changes, such as my recent month-long disappearance.
A New Year of Hope – Goodbye to 2023
It’s one year on for my blog, but we’ve already celebrated the end of one year. It’s funny reading the article back and realising how much has changed since I started this blog. There’s been some highs and lows on a personal level, but I’m in a good place right now. And that’s despite the complete change in my circumstances since I started this blog one year ago. And that’s the only reason I’ve included this post here: simply to tell you I’m good.
A Lost Article – A Typical Burns Supper Menu
This is going to hurt, at least, from a pure blogging perspective. As Burns Night proved a popular food concept, I thought I’d plan a complete Burns Night menu and post each element individually leading up to Burns Night. One of those posts included an overview of scotch whisky.
For this, I spent two evenings writing a 200-word draft. Then, I spent another evening editing and rewriting to ensure the article represented my passion for Scottish whisky. In the end, I was happy with the result. And a few days later, I was ready to schedule it. My first post to celebrate Burns Night.
However, when I opened it up on OneDrive, I was horrified. The 2000-word post that had taken nearly a week to produce and make perfect was condensed to the first 500 words. I was stunned and in complete shock. I still don’t know what happened other than an accidental confusion during the rewrite and an inattentiveness to the autosave function. It was the worst moment in my blogging life and has set me back in a way I haven’t really recovered from.
Happy Birthday, but I’ve Already Taken an Unplanned Break
I never mentioned the last story in my previous post about my unplanned break, but only now, having recalled the moment I opened the document entitled “A Brief Introduction to Scottish Whisky”, can I remember the feeling of dejection. All my hard work had been stripped away so effortlessly by one mistake. It probably influenced my thinking and my reason for my short break more than I considered it.
Still, it was a hard-earned lesson. And it came almost a complete one year on. But for now, I need to stop writing because there’s work to do. I know it’s my birthday, at least my blog birthday, but the work can’t stop now. I’ve already had my unplanned break from work. So I need to keep going if I want to still be here one year on from now.
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