Introduction to Antonia

This Post was written by Antonia from Food, Glorious Food!

1. Where are you based?

Battersea, London

2. How long have you been blogging?

Since April, 2007. Very definitely still a novice, but enjoying every minute!

3. What's the best thing about food blogging?

Food blogging inspires me to be much more adventurous with my cooking. Rather than cooking 'the same old thing', I am more experimental as I want to produce something suitably 'blog-worthy'.

4. What's the worst thing about food blogging?

The fact that most of my food is cold by the time I have captured its best angle on camera.

5. What inspires you to cook and write?

I have loved both food and writing for as long as I remember. Last year I took an Open University course in creative writing which I enjoyed, but found that almost everything I wrote about included references or descriptions of food or wine (even my portrayal of a chilling murder scene!). Food blogging therefore seemed a more appropriate outlet for my writing. In terms of culinary inspiration, all the following influence my cooking; the weather, the season, the occasion, my mood, other food blogs, my collection of cookery books and magazines.

6. Where do you like to blog?

At my desk, in the sitting room, sitting on a too-low piano stool that makes my back ache. I must find somewhere better...

7. What's your signature dish?

Hmm. Tricky. I take puddings fairly seriously and would probably say treacle tart. My family would definitely say my beef and horseradish casserole. My friends would, for some inexplicable reason, say my honey and mustard chicken salad. It is the sort of supper I make in a hurry, using whatever is in the fridge. I always serve it up in an apologetic sort of way, but everyone seems to love it.

8. What about you might it surprise other bloggers to know?

Although I love to entertain and do so frequently, most of my cooking is for one as I live alone. Most people say they can't be bothered to cook properly 'just for one', but I find it incredibly therapeutic and go to just as much effort for myself as I do when cooking for a crowd.

Introduction to Wendy

This Post was written by Wendy from A Wee Bit of Cooking.

1. Where are you based?
Inverness, Highlands

2. How long have you been blogging?
Since the beginning of the year, 2007. My blog actually started as a reflective professional journal. Gradually, I began to talk less about teaching and more about cooking (which I spend the vast majority of my freetime doing). Since school broke up I've barely mentioned my classes!

3. What's the best thing about food blogging?
As Johanna said in an earlier post, the blogging community is the best thing. I feel like I've connected with people. This is particularly important to me at the moment as, though I have lots of friends scattered around the globe, I don't have many friends in Inverness. Perhaps because I'm always in the kitchen...

4. What's the worst thing about food blogging?
Explaining to people what a blog actually is. Unless I can show them, I find it really difficult to define.

5. What inspires you to cook and write?
It's a creative outlet. Plus its great fun and I love to eat.

6. Where do you like to blog?
I have a wireless connection which enables me to blog in the kitchen, on the sofa, in bed and in the garden. And I do! Draw the line at the bathroom though.

7. What's your signature dish?
Risotto bianco with parma ham and rocket or red pepper and tomato soup.

8. What about you might it surprise other bloggers to know?
I get nervous about cooking for anyone other than my partner or parents. :)

Newsletters

Hi everyone,

I'm thinking of starting a newsletter for A Slice of Cherry Pie and was wondering if I could tap into the UK bloggers' collective knowledge on the subject?

So a few questions:

1) What are the advantages of a newsletter? Why would I start one? Is there demand for one?
2) Do you have one? How do you find it? Do you have many subscribers?
3) What software do I use? How do I get started? Can I create a funky image-rich one? How?

Please help a newsletter virgin!


This Post was written by Julia from A Slice of Cherry Pie

Introduction to Sarah

This Post was written by Sarah from Eating Britain

1. Where are you based?
Worthing, near Brighton on the South Coast

2. How long have you been blogging?
I started blogging about a year ago and food blogging took over a couple of months later.

3. What's the best thing about food blogging?
The other food bloggers! I love the friendly-ness and the passion for everything to do with food. It's so nice to share that passion by reading other blogger's experiences and experiments!

4. What's the worst thing about food blogging?
It's so frustrating when I spend time planning and preparing a dish, only to scoff it before I remember to take a photo!! Ggrrrr!

5. What inspires you to cook and write?
Food is an important part of me. From a very young age I was helping my mum and nan in the kitchen. I learnt so much from watching and doing the odd job, like stir the roux whilst mum was preparing something else. Growing up in a Portuguese family, introduced me to different foods and having adventurous parents, gave me a fairly cultured pallet. Then in my late 20's I became un-well and was diagnosed with a gluten intolerance and IBS. Suddenly, many of the foods I love became the enemy and it made me so sad. I started looking for gluten-free recipes on the net and gradually began to realise that I could still eat many things just by substituting ingredients for GF versions or alternatives. I had already started blogging and began reading the blogs of other IBS sufferers and I stumbled across Karina's blog "Recipes from a (Gluten-free) Goddess. I was utterly enthralled and inspired. Karina's recipes are fabulous and her writing inspired me to share my journey into food and cooking from a new angle - the result, food blogging on EatingBritain.com!

6. Where do you like to blog?
I like blogging on my laptop, with my feet up, on the sofa. Somehow I get my best inspiration late at night and have been known to be tapping away until the early hours.

7. What's your signature dish?
I really don't know. I like to cook such a variety of dishes, it's difficult to choose. But judging by repeated requests to make this particular dish, I'd say my sausage & bean casserole. It's yummy and very easy and it's GF, in fact I really should write a post about it...!

8. What about you might it surprise other bloggers to know?
I really, really can't stand green beans!!!

Introduction to Joanna's Food

This Post was written by Joanna from Joanna's Food



1. Where are you based?

Harpsden, just outside Henley on Thames

2. How long have you been blogging?

I'm astonished to find that it's been over two years - I first started on a whim in May 2005.

3. What's the best thing about food blogging?

The cameraderie, no question. I have made some real friends, loads of cyber friends, and there's always someone on hand to give advice, answer stupid questions, make you feel better when you're down, make you feel good about things you've said and done. So very much more than a recipe book!

4. What's the worst thing about food blogging?

The stick I get from my family about photographing the food!

5. What inspires you to cook and write?

I've always cooked a lot, I've always enjoyed it. The food writing came later (although I was a journalist before I started my family) ... my husband had a heart attack three years ago, and we changed our diet on doctors' advice. It was a time of huge change in the way I cooked, and I kept forgetting what I'd been doing. At the same time, people began to ask me about the changes we were making. So, in the beginning, the blog was a way of keeping track of what I was doing, and at the same time sharing it with friends. Only gradually did I discover what blogging was really all about!

6. Where do you like to blog?

I always blog on my laptop in my study (I know, I'm a lucky girl). But I'd really like someone to tell me about the software I know exists which enables you to write the post while you're out and about, and post it when you get to a hotspot.

7. What's your signature dish?

Not sure I've got one ... I like to innovate. Salmon and chips (McCain's 5% oven chips, the ONLY processed food I now buy) with a huge salad is my personal favourite; prawn paste is my new take on potted shrimps (all that butter's a total no-no); more or less anything involving a beetroot.

8. What about you might it surprise other bloggers to know?

Um. Er.

An introduction...

This Post was written by Sunita from Sunita's World.

1. Where are you based?

Kesgrave, Ipswich.

2. How long have you been blogging?

Since one cold December night, 2006...now how long does that make...seven months!

3. What's the best thing about food blogging?

For me the best thing is undoubtedly the fact that I can keep track of those recipes which, so often, I just improvise as I cook. I conjure most of the dishes while cooking. The fact that now I can refer to them again whenever I want to is just so handy. And of course who can forget the charming readers who stop by my humble blog and leave words of encouragement...I really look forward to them and although I've never seen most of them, I do enjoy their chit-chat quite a lot.

4. What's the worst thing about food blogging?

Oh! that has got to be the expanding waistline which needs to be looked after more often now.

5. What inspires you to cook and write?

Well, I've always loved to write and I've always loved to cook...so it was like combining two of the things that I'm really passionate about .

6. Where do you like to blog?

Wherever I can place the laptop on...

7. What's your signature dish?

Now, that's a really difficult question... both me and my husband ( and now the kids) are real foodies and don't stop from trying anything... that means I cook all types of food, and usually they do pass the test... and I'm still experimenting...so to choose one is a real tough job...

8. What about you might surprise other food bloggers to know?

I got cooking after I was 16 or 17. Till then I did'nt realise that plain rice involved only rice and water...I remember asking somebody what are the spices and salts to be put in to which I received quite a stare- considering the fact that it is the staple food and consumed everyday ( in Asam, India, where I originally come from) ...