Three Essentials for Writing a Perfect Food Blog Post -- Lessons from A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg

Reading A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg is a writing course for food bloggers. Her book grew out of her popular and long-running blog Orangette. The book tells the story of her life through vignettes and recipes. It was our Kitchen Reader choice for February, chosen by Jules of Stone Soup.

Wizenberg's voice is chatty, friendly, and laid back. She paints word pictures of her family and friends in a humourous and loving way. She has been a food blogger since 2004. In her book she says that she writes "about my life some, too, since it intersects with food roughly three times a day." It's clear that this book grew from the stories on her blog. Each of the forty-five short chapters in her book is a perfect model of how to write an engaging blog post. I learned three lessons to apply to my food blogging. I'm considering these the three essential ingredients for a perfect food blog post.

Cornbread with Corn

From the "why-didn't-i-think-of that-before?" file comes this recipe idea: adding corn to cornbread. Boy, that's an obvious idea, but it had not occurred to me until recently.

If you are anything like me, you often have some frozen or canned corn around on standby to make emergency meals when there are no "real" vegetables in the fridge. And so it is that I threw some corn into the cornbread recently. Serve with soup for a full meal. (Maybe rocket and goat's cheese soup? Or Mexican soup?)

Butternut Squash with Beans and Pumpkin Seeds

"You mean you really don't eat out?" my colleague asked. We were having drinks after a work conference and I confessed I hadn't eaten at any of the restaurants he had been praising.

"I like to cook," I replied. It's true, I prefer to come home and cook rather than eat out--the vast majority of the time. This is not typical Hong Kong behaviour.

"But where do you get ideas for what to make?" he countered.

Thanks for Visiting!

Hello, friends! This is just a short, personal note to say thanks for visiting Simply Cooked, or liking us on Facebook. In the last four months the blog has had over 10,000 page views each month! This is a huge milestone for me and I'm so excited. Plus, there are more than 300 people subscribed to the blog by email or RSS feed.


My next goal is to increase the interactivity on the Simply Cooked Facebook page. I think it could be a great place to share easy, tasty recipe ideas. Anyone can post there, so I hope you will. Next time you find something interesting around the web, please share it with the Simply Cooked community by posting it there. Or share your kitchen ideas.

Meatless Meatballs

Now here's a unique way to make meatballs: with lentils and brown rice. These meatless meatballs are a good party snack or a dinner main dish with spaghetti. They are made more interesting with the addition of pesto, garlic, oregano, and paprika. They tasted scrumptious with a pesto and mayo dipping sauce.

Zesty Grapefruit Cake (Whole Grain)

My good friend is allergic to milk. She came over to bake with me last week and we whipped up this delicious cake. It's made with grapefruit and is zesty, delicious, and has no milk.

I have never tried a cake with grapefruit before - but it's an inspired surprise. It's a sharper taste than orange and more flavourful than lemon. The springy cake is topped with a glaze made with grapefruit zest and juice.