What is expected of a food blogger?

Being  a food blogger can certainly be a full-time job. It involves cooking, photographing, writing and that doesn’t even include planning, editing or searching for that one nowhere-to-be found ingredient. All these steps should be done with pleasure, otherwise, why bother blogging at all, right?

There is one thing I have struggled with lately and it’s a by-product of being part of a wonderful community of food bloggers in the ever-expanding social media world. I want to support as many bloggers as I can in a variety of ways but that too seems to be turning into a full-time job.  So I’ve recently asked myself what is the expectation of one food blogger to another food blogger? Or better yet, is there even an expectation? Let me paint a scenario that should be all-too familiar for most of you.

Blogger X posts an entry on his/her blog. You may subscribe to the blog on Google Reader so you read it there or they may they tweeted it, so you click and read. After taking the 3-5 minutes of reading the post, you are inclined to leave a comment. The comment may be as simple as “Looks great” or it may be something more in the form of a follow-up question or recounting your own memory that was triggered while reading the post. Afterwards, you may have the option to click on any number of social media “share” buttons. You can Tweet it, Facebook Like it, StumbleUpon it, Reddit it, Foodbuzz it or do “it” to any number of sites that you’ve never heard of. As far as these buttons go, this blog isn’t that fancy…yet.

For me personally, I love comments on my blog. I appreciate the time and effort people put into sharing something that sparked something within them simply from them reading my words. Recently, I weaved the eulogy I gave when my Bubbie passed away into a post. It was a story I’ve wanted to share for quite some time and I was overwhelmed with the responses and the raw emotions that people friends shared with me in comment form. For me personally, I’d take a heartfelt comment over a retweet. However, if Jamie Oliver, Ree Drummond – the Pioneer Woman or Lady Gaga want to retweet me and expose me to millions of people, who am I to say no? (1 of the 3 names there doesn’t quite belong in a food blog, does it?)

The whole process of commenting and sharing may not sound overly daunting when it’s crammed into a few sentences like I’ve just done. I do my best to comment and retweet, but sometimes there are just not enough hours in the day and when you fall behind, there is no catching up. When it’s multiplied by the 10, 20, 30 blogs that you follow, it’s just not possible to give them all their proper due, is it?

1st note – I do get the irony that you may comment or “share” this post.

2nd note – Tastes Better With Friends will be getting a facelift soon and there will be additional “share” buttons on the new site. And yes, I get the irony there too.

Simple and Elegant Appetizers

I was put in charge of the appetizers for a little potluck dinner the other night and since I didn’t have much time to prepare my goal was something easy and delicious. I decided on baked asparagus wrapped in prosciutto and tomatoes with garlic, olive oil and bocconcini cheese.

The asparagus dish is something I had seen Jamie Oliver do on the Food Network (I can’t remember which series since he’s got 3-4 going). I had tried it once before with pancetta and even though it was good with the prosciutto, it is better with pancetta. It crisps up much faster and the salt really penetrates into the asparagus giving it a nice kick.

Asparagus wrapped in proscuitto

It is really easy to prepare,

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees
• Once the asparagus has been washed and dried, roll the pancetta (or prosciutto) around the asparagus and lay them in a baking pan
• Drizzle some olive oil over the asparagus
• Bake for 10 minutes (or until the edges of the meat turns crispy)

Asparagus wrapped in proscuitto

As for the tomatoes, it was something I thought would be simple and a nice cold app to go with the asparagus.

• Slice 4-6 ripe tomatoes lengthwise
• 1 clove of garlic (finely sliced)
• pepper
• oregano
• salt
• 3 tablespoons of olive oil
• Combine them all and then drizzle it over the tomatoes
• Add some bocconcini cheese

Tomatoes with olive oil and bocconcini cheese

Tomatoes with olive oil and bocconcini cheese