Allow me to introduce myself...
It’s
been on my mind for a long time but it just kept getting delayed. However,
after just a little under one and half years, almost 100 posts and loads of
visitors to the blog, I seriously need to introduce myself. So this becomes my
official about page for Culinary Experiments of an Amateur.
Something that was missing all this time, making the blog and my blog
personality rather incomplete. So, here I am with a new resolution – a decent “about”
page.
Who am I?
Donna – that’s the name given to me by my dad and mom. I
was born back in 1984, one beautiful day in Chennai ,
India and after a few years
moved to Cochin
I
graduated in Psychology and went on to do my Masters in Social Work, all of
which I thoroughly enjoyed and certainly hope to do something with it in the
near future.
I now have settled in Bangalore
How did the Food Blog
come about?
Somewhere
along the way I got obsessed with food. Not so much the eating it but more the
cooking it. It was simply divine to see people relish the food I had prepared
and then to see the perfect look of satisfaction on their faces. That was it! I
did not need the compliments – it was the look that had me hooked. You know the
one I mean. It all started with my hubby’s love for flavorsome food which
led to my quest to make that happen and this subsequently gave birth to Culinary Experiments of an Amateur.
What’s
with the name?
The name has a very simple
story behind it. The blog was created within a short span of time and without
much thought to it and me being an amateur, fit the bill perfectly and right
then and there we (both my hubby and I) decided that this would be the perfect
name for my food blog. I started with what now seems like a rather naive first post, but as always, once thrown
in the deep water, I learn to swim on my own and fast. At that time I had no
idea that there were so many other food blogs dotted all across the globe. As I
discovered the wonderful world of food blogging I also discovered what an
exceptional community this is. It has been a true gift to have found so many
friends, support, motivation and fun along the way. Something I am always truly
thankful for.
Today, Culinary Experiments of an Amateur has become a means for me to
express my thoughts, share my crazy ideas, experiment, muse, ramble and
discover. I strive to share my passion and record them for myself to refer to
later on in life. In the progress, I am learning something new almost everyday.
This blog has been so many things to me over the past year and a half (almost); a learning platform, culinary and
otherwise, a way to meet awesome people and make new friends, sanity check,
inspiration, and most important of all, an outlet for the foodie, writer and
artist in me. At the heart of it, I love food in every form (ok,
except the exotic stuff like tongue, bugs and stuff!!) and this is my ode to my
love and now, my passion!
As much as this is a
personal journal, I look forward to sharing my experiences with
you. I thank you for stopping by my space and hope that you enjoy the
journey as much as I did. I appreciate all your thoughtful comments and
feedback and if you would like to drop me a line, please feel free to do so on
my blog or Facebook page.
Recipes
The recipes you find on my
blog are all put together with love, care and a lot of passion. The sources of
my recipes are various - a newspaper or magazine, the Internet, a cookbook, my
parents, other family or friends, my own creations and
experiments. Many a time I have altered or modified a recipe and almost always
post my version of it. If I prepared the recipe from a cookbook or online food
service I will most certainly recommend the book it came from or link to the
online source. I do take time to post these recipes and often my
experimentations are a matter of taste - ours. However, if you find something
not quite right about a recipe please do let me know. I will certainly look
into it.
Posting
& Commenting
Maintaining a blog is a
difficult job - no doubt about it. When I sit down to create a post it is a
process of many steps, to describe them all here would blow this post out of
proportion. But basically after a dish has been cooked, I carefully skim enough
of it away and hide it in the fridge to photograph at a later time.
Photographing as soon as a dish was prepared, as I did in the earlier days, was
proving to be to stressful on myself and the tummies of my family and friends.
(though I still do it at times when I have no choice!) Once the shots have been
taken, I sit down to work out a rough sketch of what I want to discuss in the
post. Thoughts, dreams, memories, venting or informative - whatever the nature
of the post, I ponder on it for a while. Finally, all aspects of my post come
together and in the two-three hour period it takes to finish a post I always
feel elated when it is finally published. I publish about two to three posts a
week. (atleast I try)
Commenting is the most
important feedback and a way for me to know which nerve I have hit with my
readers. I appreciate all your comments and make sure to read every single one
of them. Unfortunately, I am unable to always reply to every single one
individually. Although, I do try when time allows, I am not as good as I would
like to be. So I try to address the feedback in bundles. Unless, there is a
very important comment or a question, I tend to reply to comments about a day
or 2 after it has been published, however even here depending on time, it might
take longer.
While I appreciate all
feedback, opinions and arguments from both sides and do not delete comments
that take on a different point of view, I am irritated when the comments are
insulting, rude or personal attacks. If these type of comments cross my
threshold of patience, I will delete them without any kind of acknowledgment.
I also get annoyed when
people leave anonymous comments. Please stand up to your views, thoughts and opinions.
I do not appreciate people
using my space to promote their own sites. Long post-like comments to publicize
their own websites or blogs are uncoy and I find them suspicious. Do not be
surprised if I delete them too. I do not mind links if the content of your post
applies to what I wrote about and will generally be helpful to both our
readers.
Copyrights
Pretty much everything in
my space is self-generated. That is not to say, I come up with all the crazy
stuff, but I credit inspirations and expect mine to be too. As you can imagine,
it takes quite a bit of effort to develop the idea, create and test the dish
and reproduce it on the site. So, everything on the blog is copyrighted under
the common copyright law and general courtesy.
Please ask me first, before
reproducing! If you are interested in licensing one of my photographs for
commercial purposes, please contact me. You may not reproduce any of my work
for commercial purposes without my permission. You may not alter or otherwise
modify any content for reprint.
© 2011-2012 Donna George - All
content, including photos, writing and recipes are my own. As you can imagine,
it takes quite a bit of effort to develop the idea, create and test the dish
and reproduce it on the site. Please ask first, before reproducing or
distributing any material from the site.
No comments:
Post a Comment