This giveaway is now closed.

I wanted to bake something special for this post today, as a friends success is something to celebrate. But, I didn’t… I’ve been so busy with freelance work these past two weeks that my kitchen is feeling a bit neglected. I figured, even though I wasn’t able to bake something, I could still pass on the word to you all about the most wonderful food photography book I have devoured to date… Plate to Pixel by Helene Dujardin (aka Tartelette).

I have had the good fortune to become friends with Helene over the past few years. I say good fortune because Helene is one of those people you meet and are immediately grateful for the time you spend together. She is generous, kind, funny, spirited and oh so gifted. Since I am self taught at photography and still learning every step of the way, Helene has been a major resource for me as I have learned. Even though food photography and styling isn’t my main focus, the fundamentals of using my camera and lighting are all things Helene has helped me to learn. She has never hoarded information… has always been extremely generous with her knowledge, and I appreciate that in the most sincere of ways.

Plate to Pixel is a book you need, even if you are only slightly interested in food photography and styling. Sitting down with Plate to Pixel is like sitting down to a glass of wine with Helene herself and getting to soak up her knowledge. Flipping through the pages, I have literally learned something new at each page turn. Plate to Pixel is packed full of information – from choosing your props, to finding the perfect light for your shot, to tools to help with styling and photography – if you want to know it, it’s in Plate to Pixel. I have yet to come across a food photography and styling book that is more comprehensive than this one. Plus, beautiful photography throughout… it is brain candy as much as eye candy.

Plate to Pixel is such a valuable resource, I think everyone should own a copy! I’m giving four copies away on Dine & Dish and you may be one of the four lucky winners! To enter to win your own copy of Plate to Pixel, leave a comment on this post telling me what it is that draws you to food photography. For additional entries, you can do any of the following:

• Tweet the following leaving a separate comment on this post letting me know you did: @DineandDish is giving away 4 copies of Plate to Pixel, the food photography & styling book by @Sweettartelette http://su.pr/168Oz6
• Become a friend of Dine and Dish on Facebook. Leave a separate comment on this post letting me know you did.
• Like Helene Dujarddin Photography on Facebook. Leave a separate comment on this post letting me know you did.

All entries must be completed no later than Monday, May 9th at midnight CST. 4 winners will be chosen via Random Number Generator on Tuesday, May 10th. One lucky winner will also receive a special print from Helene’s collection.

I love Plate to Pixel so much, I’m linking it up to I’m Lovin’ It over at TidyMom.

Something to ponder over your morning coffee...

Picture the scene… it is late in the night on May 1st, 2011. You and a group of friends are sitting around, watching groundbreaking news unfold. Osama Bin Laden has been killed. It is a historic moment, most likely not to be forgotten during your lifetime.

Deep in conversation, you are all expressing your gratitude for our US Soldiers. Some are expressing concerns over the safety of our troops and the retaliation that is certain to come from Bin Laden’s death. Additionally, many are aghast at the celebrations taking place in the streets, remembering back to 9/11 when “they” were celebrating in the face of our tragedy. The conversations are deep, meaningful, thought provoking. Then, all of a sudden, one of the friends present says “Hey… look at these cookies I made for Mother’s Day. Pretty awesome aren’t they?”

Everyone looks at the person like they are insane. Did they just talk about Mother’s Day cookies in a time like this? Do they not know what just happened?

This is basically the scene last night. Twitter and Facebook were a buzz with the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death. Among the news, tweets that were previously scheduled (or at least I hope they were pre-scheduled tweets) were interrupting this historic moment in awkward abundance. Scheduled tweets, my friends, were seen as irreverent and completely out of place and frankly, a bit ridiculous. As Stefania tweeted “Beyond strange, it’s a social media fail.”

I know this type of event doesn’t happen everyday… it is a brief moment in history, but consider the moments your scheduled tweets might be interrupting and decide for yourself if it is truly worth that extra few seconds you gain by scheduling your blog post tweets.

Just something to think about… do you want to be talking about your latest unrelated blog post when groundbreaking history is made?

This giveaway is now closed. The winner of the Pledge prize pack is Pam Kennedy!

See the Le Creuset pot above? That pot has been in my life for just a couple of weeks now, but it has simply inspired me in ways I wouldn’t believe. I mean, I’ve had stock pots before and we own a nice set of pans but there is something about this beautiful Le Creuset dutch oven that inspires me to cook. It has brought around other types of inspiration as well… because our new pot kind of overpowers our stove, it has sent my husband and I into dreams of what the perfect kitchen would look like for us. Someday…someday. And I can’t wait until that beautiful cherry red Le Creuset dutch oven has its own spacious area on our dream stove.

In the meantime, did you know that Pledge – the cleaner that I had always assumed was only for dusting furniture – is giving one lucky person the chance to win $15,000 in kitchen improvements? You may be thinking…”Pledge? Kitchen Improvements? What? That doesn’t even go together.” That, my friend, is where you are mistaken. Pledge can be used on more than just wood surfaces for dusting. I took a spin with my yellow can of Pledge in the kitchen today and discovered it did a fantastic job on my cooktop, stainless steal and granite! I love it when I find out that a cleaner has multiple uses, don’t you?

I ‘m going to head over to the Mom it Forward blog to learn all about how to win that $15,000 kitchen improvement contest and see if I can win so my Le Creuset can get a new stovetop home. If you feel like trying to make your dream of a new kitchen a reality, I’d encourage you to go to the Mom it Forward blog and read how simple it is to enter!

Pledge is giving Dine & Dish readers a little love as well. They are providing a Pledge gift basket (ARV $40) to one reader. I know, I know…. this isn’t a housekeeping blog, but now that I know pledge can be used as a multi-purpose cleaner in the kitchen, I think you deserve to test it out as well! To enter, simply leave a comment on this blog post letting me know what improvements you would make to your kitchen with $15,000. For an extra entry, tweet the following: “Enter the “Pledge To Love Your Kitchen” Contest for a chance to win a $15,000 kitchen upgrade. Visit http://bit.ly/bMhDSU #pledgecontest” Once you’ve tweeted, come back to this post and leave a second comment letting me know so I can count both entries. All entries must be received by midnight CST on Tuesday, November 23. Random.org will then be used to chose the winner!

I love Pledge and always have and I love it even more now that I know I can use it everywhere! I did receive compensation to get the word out about the contest, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own.

A talented and fun group of food bloggers joined me at this Sam’s Club bloggers event. From Left to Right: Lori from Recipe Girl, Peabody from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody, Amanda from Amanda’s Cookin’, me, Ann Marie aka This Mama Cooks, Maria from Two Peas and Their Pod, and Estela from Weekly Bite.

I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days last week at the Sam’s Club headquarters in Bentonville, AR. I’m going to preface this post by saying I am not a Sam’s Club member currently. The Sam’s Club visit was an enjoyable and eye opening experience. There are several things I did not know that surprised me and impressed me. I know that many of my readers choose to shop at other warehouse stores over Sam’s Club. I thought I’d share with you the enlightening things I learned while I was on my trip that have quite possibly changed my mind about where my membership loyalty will go next time I have to renew. Here is my list of the Top 10 Things You Should Know About Sam’s Club:

1. Sam’s Club has worked hard to enhance their image, including the look and feel of their stores. Wider aisles, more organized departments, and an overall clean, bright feel makes Sam’s Club feel less like a warehouse and more like an enjoyable shopping experience.

2. Sam’s Club is thinking more like the home cook. Buying in bulk now has new meaning because Sam’s Club is changing the way they package many of their items. You’ll find large packages with individual packages inside instead of just one large package that will go bad or spoil by the time you get through it!

3.  Shopping is made easier with more organized shelves, signage and labels. Tone’s spices, for example, are now organized alphabetically with a large label indicating what the spice is. No more hunting and searching for the right spice. You can now walk right up and get what you need without a bunch of hunting around. Seems like a no-brainer doesn’t it? I know that many of you can relate to going to your local grocery store and searching and searching for the right spice! Having them alphabetized makes shopping a cinch.

4. Did you know that Sam’s Club puts every food product that is on their shelves through a blind taste test at their corporate headquarters? If it doesn’t get a 7.5 or higher out of 9, it doesn’t get sold at Sam’s Club. They take what goes onto their shelves very seriously and are extremely particular about quality and value alike. Read this article, The Taste of Science Behind Sam’s Club, to get a great view of how seriously Sam’s Club takes what is put on their shelves.

Maria, Lori, Amanda and Michelle show off just a few of the delicious cakes that will be available at Sam’s Club for the holidays.

5.  Gorgeous holiday cakes and cheesecakes for an unbelievable low price…delicious. Need I say more? (Plus, when you see me at BlogHer food and I’m 15 pounds heavier, I’m blaming it on Sam’s Club and all the delicious food we were forced to eat.)

6. The focus on cost savings for the customer goes all the way down to the Sam’s Club corporate employees. They are all in charge of cleaning their own cubicles and emptying out their own trash cans which means they spend less money on cleaning services to do the job.

7. My biggest “a-ha” moment came at the produce section of the Sam’s Club we visited. Gorgeous, fresh, bountiful, delicious produce. Sam’s Club is very picky about what growers they work with and really work hard with the farmer’s to ensure that only the best quality produce is on the shelves at a great price for their consumers. Seeing and tasting their produce was enough to get me thinking about making the switch over to Sam’s Club!

8. I know it is too early to think about the holidays, however, once you do get in the mood to decorate, head to Sam’s Club. They have an amazing assortment of beautiful home and table decorations at unbelievable prices!

9. Did you know that Sam’s Club now has a large assortment of artisan cheeses and artisan breads? They travel the world to find the best cheeses for their members, working directly with the producers. Oh, and don’t get me started on the Irish Butter that I tried. I’ve never tasted a butter like it… yummmm!

10. Finally, if you are like me and have some pre-conceived notions or past impressions of Sam’s Club, I would highly encourage you to give them another chance. They have, in my opinion, come leaps and bounds and are worthy of you taking another look!

A special thanks to Sam’s Club for their hospitality. Sam’s Club provided meals (and by meals, I mean seriously… I gained 15 pounds), transportation and lodging for the trip. I was not paid for my opinion. What is stated in this post are my own impressions.

I have been blogging for almost four years now, and while I am no expert at all to food blogging, I have seen a lot of things as the food blogging niche has completely exploded into something beyond belief. When I first started blogging, there was a small, intimate handful of us. Now, there are more food blogs than any one person can keep track of… it has gotten quite insane!

What I have noticed over the years, however, is there seems to be two different groups of bloggers. Neither “type” of blogger is good or bad… there are just two totally different philosophies on how they will build their blog.

One type of blogger is the blogger who is all about growth and development of their blog. It is all business and getting to the top of the mountain with ultimate success and financial reward as their main motivation. They are not in it to build friendships. They are not in it to assist others. They are in it for themselves and to become a brand name in food blogging. They believe the information they have is proprietary and they don’t really want to share their blogging tips, photography tips, etc. because it might help to make someone more successful than them. Twitter and other social media outlets are used as a marketing tool versus a chance to engage with others. This isn’t saying that they aren’t nice and kind… there are many bloggers who fall into this category who are some of the nicest people in the world. Their motivation when it comes to blogging is just purely business.

The other type of blogger is the one who thrives on building a community of people to help and support each other with their blogging efforts. They rally around each other, celebrate successes, promote each others blog posts, and do not see the other bloggers as competition. They look at working mostly with PR companies and brands that want long term, mutual relationship.  Their first thought isn’t “what’s in it for me” but instead “what’s in it for us”? Sure, it may take them longer to make it to the top of the mountain, but more than likely they won’t be standing there alone…they’ll have a support network of people they’ve built relationships with standing around them cheering them on.

One of my personal goals with blogging is to help as many people as possible find their way along their own, authentic blogging path. This is one of the reasons why I started Adopt a Blogger a little over three years ago. I wanted people to have a person they could trust and count on to provide that sense of community in this big blogging world. Adopt a Blogger will be launching again this month with a new website and a new format! I hope, if you are new or experienced, you’ll join me in building up our blogging community.

I am also excited to announce that I will be speaking about the value of building a blogging community at the BlogHer Food 2010 Conference in San Francisco. I’ll be on a panel with some bloggers that I truly admire: Elise from Simply Recipes, Ree from The Pioneer Woman and Alaina Browne of Serious Eats (I know… pinch me now. I am so lucky to be paired with such a great group of talented ladies!)

So with that, I leave you with this thought (and a link to a killer banana bread recipe from Simply Recipes). What kind of blogger are you? Do the actions you do everyday in regards to your blog speak volumes to the world about how you want to be perceived as a blogger?

One of the difficult things about being a food blogger, and when I say difficult I mean that in the loosest of terms, is remembering that not all things you cook have to be new and exciting. It is okay to revisit some old favorites every now and then.

Don’t you find that to be true as you are planning your menus? You want to have something new to blog about, so you fill up your menu with recipes you haven’t tried before in order for you to have some new content for your blog. Pretty soon, some of the recipes you love that you had blogged about before are buried under the pile of new recipes and you soon forget they even existed.

This weekend, I planned my menu for this week but was stumped as to what to have on Sunday night. I sent a shout out into the wonderful world of Twitter for meal ideas when the lovely Melanie, from Southern Comfort in a Northern Life, said she was making a recipe I had on my blog years ago for Grilled Pork Chops with Garlic Lime Sauce. Intrigued, because I honestly forgot about that recipe, I went to check out my very own blog to see what she was referring to. Sure enough. I saw the recipe for Grilled Pork Chops with Garlic Sauce and instantly remembered how much we had loved it!

Take this as a gentle reminder that newer isn’t always better. Don’t ignore your archives. Sometimes, a treasure that you may have forgotten about awaits you!

Pork Chops with Garlic Lime Sauce (Originally from Epicurious.com)

1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 teaspoon dried hot red-pepper flakes
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
6 (1/2-inch-thick) boneless pork chops

Whisk together lime juice, garlic, red-pepper flakes, and 1/4 teaspoon salt, then add oil in a slow stream, whisking well. Whisk in cilantro.

Prepare a gas grill for direct-heat cooking over medium-high heat. Pat pork dry and season with salt and pepper. Oil grill rack, then grill pork chops, covered, turning over once, until just cooked through, 5 to 6 minutes total. Serve drizzled with some vinaigrette, and with remainder on the side.

Cooks’ note: If you aren’t able to grill outdoors, chops can be cooked in a hot lightly oiled large (2-burner) ridged grill pan over moderately high heat.

Makes 4 servings.

Gourmet
July 2007

I just returned from the beautiful Canyons Resort in Park City, UT where I was fortunate enough to attend the first annual Evo ’10 Conference (Foodies – I know you want to think that Evo has something to do with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, but it is really The Evolution of Women in Social Media).

For those of you who are getting ready to head to the BlogHer 2010 Conference in New York, or for those of you who are returning from the Evo ’10 conference, you might find yourself with an overwhelming feeling of trepidation and exhilaration.

When I went to the BlogHer conference in Chicago last year, I came back feeling motivated and discouraged, all at the same time. Motivated because I had the opportunity to listen and learn from some extremely talented people in the world of blogging. Discouraged because I realized in that one weekend how much of a little fish in a huge sea of other bloggers I was. It was such an eye opening moment for me when I realized there were thousands of people who cared that much about their blog to spend hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to network and nourish it at a blogging conference.

I will be honest.  My first day at Evo, surrounded by Mommy / Lifestyle bloggers, many of whom had no clue who I was, I felt the same way. Why bother blogging? What do I want out of all of this? At close to 4 years of blogging, what is my intention and where do I plan on taking things? What have I accomplished? I listened, I learned, I felt and I, after day 1, was ready to give up blogging and go home. Seriously.

Day 2 arrived and I listened, I learned, I felt and it hit me… I blog for more than just recognition. I blog for more than just money.I blog for more than traffic, comment and stat numbers. I blog because I am blessed to have a platform that has allowed me to leave a legacy of stories, recipes, photographs and memories for my family. I blog and attend blogging conferences because, through the power of the internet and a simple little thing I call Dine & Dish, I have had the opportunity to create a “Blogging Sisterhood” (as my Evo roomie, Jessica, from Momma’s Gone City called it) with ladies who I am proud to know, who “get it” and whom I know I will be lifelong friends with. I blog because of the personal connection. I blog because of you…those reading my posts and supporting me along the way. I blog because I know that deep down, many of us have similar stories and through sharing those stories, we can love and support each other and make it through life a little easier. In reality, I blog out of a big thing called love.

The Evo conference ended up being an amazing experience. I can’t thank my sponsor, Melaleuca, enough for making it possible for me to go. I have come back home to my family and can honestly say I have been impacted and changed for the better.

For more pictures of the Evo ’10 conference that feature some of your favorite food bloggers, head over to this photo album and this photo album on my Facebook Page! You can find 2 different albums capturing all the fun.

Since the most fun and amazing closing conference party was sponsored by Bush’s Beans, I found it only appropriate to share a recipe with you from the side of a Bush’s Beans can called Italian Style Rice and Beans. This recipe makes a delicious and easy side dish that you can put on the table in just a matter of a few minutes.

Italian Style Rice and Beans (from Bush’s Beans)

1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes with Italian herbs
1 can (15.5 oz) Bush’s Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed (or Cannellini)
2/3 cup instant rice
¼ teaspoon Italian seasoning or ½ teaspoon dry basil
Fresh pepper to taste

Place all ingredients in medium saucepan. Cook 3-4 minutes, covered, over medium-high heat. Uncover pan and continue cooking 2-3 minutes, or until rice is tender. Dish is slightly saucy when completely cooked.

Today’s “Ask a Blogger” question comes from Erica over at piExperiment. Erica has a question about submitting photos to some of the more popular food photography sites, like Foodgawker and Tastespotting.

“When I edit my photos on my personal computer they look one way, but not the same when I upload them onto foodie photo sites and look at them from other computers.
What is going wrong? My best guess is the display color setting I am using, but I am not sure which one I should use.
I have been working so hard to improve my photography, and this has become my major obstacle recently.”

Erica, I can tell you one thing. Getting your photos approved or rejected at certain food photography sites is a hot topic among many bloggers. In fact, I spoke with 3 different (very talented food photography) bloggers on the phone today and the topic of conversation turned to this very subject on all three phone calls! Each and every day Twitter is full of tweets about one of these sites rejecting their photo. So, in saying this, you are not alone.

Great food photography is a very big part of what makes a food blog go beyond just good to great. Appetizing photos entice your readers to keep coming back and to try the recipes you post about. Plus, we all know that when a photo gets accepted to one of the more popular food photography sites, traffic to your blog tends to increase exponentially. Without knowing what kind of camera you use, what kind of computer you have, etc. it is going to be difficult for me to answer your question, but I’m sure one of the smart experienced bloggers will come to the rescue with some tips!

In the meantime, hopefully other food photographers / bloggers will stop by and share their best food photography tip. One that stuck in my head from when I attended BlogHer Food ’09 and the session by Matt Armendariz was to imagine what size your photo is going to be as you are taking the picture. So, if your goal is to have your picture look good in a 2×2 square, then when you are setting up your photo, make sure you take your photo so that it will be well positioned in a 2×2 square. If there is a certain size photo you use for your blog posts, do the same thing. Make sure that your props and photo are well contained within that specific size you use on your blog. Keep the end result in mind.

Hopefully we’ll have some answers for you, Erica. Readers – if any of you have Ask a Blogger questions you want answered by some experienced bloggers, send me an email to kristen <at> dineanddish.net.

Now, for your recipe loving pleasure, here is a unique and oh so good bread recipe.

Shredded Wheat Bread (from my Mother-in-Law)

• 2 cups boiling water
• 1 cup crushed Shredded Wheat cereal
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 2 tablespoons shortening
• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 package (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water (110° to 115°)
• 5-1/2 to 6-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• Melted butter, optional

• In a large bowl, pour boiling water over cereal. Add the molasses, shortening and salt. Let stand until mixture cools to 110°-115°, stirring occasionally.
• In a bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add cereal mixture and 3 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough (dough will be sticky).
• Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
• Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide in half. Shape into loaves. Place in two greased 9-in. x 5-in. loaf pans. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
• Bake at 375° for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks. Brush with melted butter if desired. Cool. Yield: 2 loaves (16 slices each).

I’m excited about the Ask a Blogger question this week because it is about a very hot topic… blog giveaways. I get this question all the time from newer bloggers and it is a great one. The most recent time this question was asked was earlier this week, by one of my own Adopt a Blogger adoptees – Stephanie from the beautiful blog, Desserts for Breakfast. Here is Stephanie’s question:

“I’ve been thinking for a while about having my first giveaway on the blog!  I have no sponsors, so it’s totally a me-loving-to-give-things-away-to-people thing.  Plus, giveaways always seem so awesomely fun on other blogs.  But, I don’t know the first thing about any logistics of running a blog giveaway and can’t seem to find anything on Google about it, so I was hoping that you’d be willing to give me a few tips?  Mainly, what rules and legal things do you think I should be aware of?  And, how do you think I could garner enough entries to make the giveaway be worthwhile?”

Such a great question and I can’t wait to read everyone’s answers in the comment section. I think giveaways can be a lot of fun too and it is a great way to show your readers how much you appreciate them. Everyone loves free stuff!
First, you need to figure out what you want to giveaway. That is important and will become the cornerstone for the way other parts of your giveaway are handled. As far as logistics, a few things you’ll want to consider:

1. How do you want people to enter? I usually do the leave a comment on the giveaway post as an entry and let the Random Number Generator choose the winner, but some people do where you can get extra entries if you tweet it, subscribe to your feed, get email updates, become a Facebook fan, that kind of thing. I am not organized enough to keep track of all that, so that is why I just do “leave a comment” or answer a question, etc. as an entry. Make sure you stress that if they enter, they MUST leave a way for you to get a hold of them so you can notify them if they win. You wouldn’t believe the number of people who forget to include their email address! Just saying “Katherine” and “I’d love to win this” gives me no clue about who you are in the big old blogosphere.
2. Do you want it to be open to everyone, or only readers in the US or your geographic area. This is basically to cover where are you willing to ship the prize to.  If it is a gift certificate or something, this doesn’t really matter, but if it is something heavy to ship, then it could be an issue. Also, customs could be an issue, so you really have to consider this carefully.
3. Since it is a sponsor free giveaway, you will just want to put somewhere in the post a disclaimer like “I love <whatever you are giving away>… the company in no way sponsored or is representative of this post. I’m doing the giveaway out of the goodness of my heart to show you all how much I appreciate you”. Something more creative like that to indicate to your readers that no one is paying you or giving you any goodies to have the giveaway.
4. And finally, you have to realize that although a great giveaway can be a nice traffic booster, without some nurturing, it isn’t often traffic that sticks around much longer after the giveaway. Your blog has to be producing great content… make people want to come back because of your writing and photography – not because you give away cool stuff.  (Stephanie has great content and photography, so this won’t be an issue for her… but just a tip for others out there wondering the same thing!)

So – experienced bloggers… I’d love to hear your opinion about blog giveaways. What tips, tricks and information do you have that might help other new bloggers out when deciding whether to do a giveaway on their blog. Leave your comment below so we can all learn from your experience!

Remember – if you are a new food blogger and have a question you’d like answered, please send me an email at kristen <at> dineanddish.net.

Because this is a food blog, I’m going to share the recipe for 10 Minute Mushroom Spaghetti Sauce from Recipezaar. This is such a quick and easy recipe for a nice, meat free, meal. Perfect for spring and summer when fresh veggies are in abundance!

10 Minute Mushroom Spaghetti Sauce (from Recipezaar)

20 min | 10 min prep

SERVES 4

I’m starting a new weekly feature at Dine & Dish to go along with Adopt a Blogger. I always feel so bad when I can’t get everyone adopted out that wants to be. It is typically because they have signed up too late and matches for adopt-a-blogger had already been made. For those people, waiting for the next round to come a long can mean losing out on critical mentoring they want during the first few months of blogging. Every day, I get questions from new bloggers wanting advice about this or that in regards to blogging, so I decided to start a feature here to help answer some of those pressing questions. I am in no way a blogging expert… which is why I am turning to those of you who have also been blogging for awhile to help answer the questions here in the comments section of the post. Hopefully, between us, we can help to mentor the newer bloggers who are in between rounds of Adopt-a-Blogger!

Each week I will feature questions from bloggers. If you have a question you would like answered, please email it to me at kristen <at> dineanddish <dot> net. I will post your question during one of the Ask a Blogger segments and will link back to your blog. Hopefully, we’ll get enough answers for you to help you out some!

The first question is one I get all the time…

“Posting every day on my blog is so hard to keep up with. Is it necessary to post every day? How many times is the right time to post during a week?”

My answer to this one is simple… you have to figure out a rhythm that works well for you. When I first started blogging 3 1/2 years ago, I wrote a new post every day. I soon found out that between cooking, photographing and writing a post each day, I was quickly getting burnt out. I eventually went to 3 times a week and felt like that fit what I was able to do much better and I enjoyed blogging a whole lot more. When I was posting so often blogging became more like a chore than something enjoyable. I think the key with blogging is to be consistent. If you post once a week, make it on the same day so that your readers know when they can expect to get new content from you (I know I need to practice what I preach, don’t I? ).  Do what works for you and your readers. Is there a right or wrong answer to this question? Experienced bloggers…what do you think? I look forward to hearing what you have to say!

Now, at 11:58pm, here is my Menu Plan Monday menu for the week:

• Monday: Teriyaki Pork Tenderloin from Food Network
• Tuesday: Panda Express Copycat Orange Chicken from Recipezaar
• Wednesday: Baked Chicken Legs from Chaos in the Kitchen
• Thursday: Special Spinach Salad (recipe below… this is my new favorite salad recipe!) with Baked Chicken from Wednesday
• Friday: Crab Cakes from Paula Deen
• Saturday: Mushroom Stuffed Chicken from Cooking Light
• Sunday: Shrimp Fra Diavlo from Cooking Light

Special Spinach Salad (from my Sister-in-Law)

1/4 Cup Sugar
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1 bunch of romaine, torn
1 pkg (6 oz) fresh baby spinach
1/2 lb. sliced mushrooms
3 cups shredded swiss cheese
1 med. red onion, sliced
1/2 lb. sliced bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 can 15 oz mandarin oranges, drained

Poppy Seed Dressing:
1/3 cup white vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
2 tbsp. dijon mustard
3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup canola oil
2 tsp. poppy seeds

1. In a small heavy skillet, melt sugar low heat add almonds and stir to coat. Spread onto a greased sheet of foil; break apart if necessary.
2. In a large bowl combine romaine, spinach, mushrooms, cheese, red onion bacon and oranges.
3. For dressing, in a blender, combine the vinegar, sugar , onion, mustard and salt cover and process until blended. While processing, gradually add oil in a steady stream, stir in poppy seeds.
4. Pour dressing over salad and toss to coat. Sprinkle with sugared almonds.