lets start with new business: cooking very slowly, very quietly without even using a cheese grater

It is a strange dichotomy to blog about food. When cooking I try and unplug everything, I don’t even like to use special tools or cut things in a uniform fashion. Chicken tastes better to me when it still has a slight femoral pokiness and is cooked naked with salt. I am even reluctant to use a cheese grater because the result looks unnatural and machined. Yet, here I am plugging my rustic food into searchable quires, tagging my posts and html-ing my photos.

These days I don’t get to cook for my friends like I used to. Some days cooking for the world wide web scratches that itch. Then, why not go back to food service? Like many, I am tired of commercial kitchens. I am tired to being ‘on-trend’ with menu items or wearing unfortunate hats while toiling over a blistering Southbend Monolith. In one of her articles for Food and Wine Gabrielle Hamilton (someone I hopelessly respect) says,

bumpy, misshapen tomatoes ripening on the back steps… cabbages shredded and broken down with salt, hunks of pork swimming in smoky, earthy juices—all of these began to revive in me the girl I was when I first learned about food, when my family ate rustic, simple dishes….

now live a long way from Portland, in a city obsessed with youth and fashion. Nevertheless, heirloom foods are ‘on-trend’ this season and the food of the Oregon mountains and my Scandinavian/German heritage is fashionably tumbling out of Downtown eateries and bars. Alas, a time will come when this is not the case. And I will still be in my teeny studio kitchen cooking very slowly, very quietly without even using a cheese grater. And my blog probably won’t be as popular then, so I may as well enjoy it while it lasts.

With this popularity, I have recently been introduced to a new form of ego boost. It manifests as the ping-back, as the stumbleupon tag, or my first foodgawker.com induction. When I first started this blog a dramatic 2 months ago I didn’t even know the subtle joy that counting hits (other than my own friends or self generated) would induce. But with success comes variance and responsibility. With the increased traffic some basic site maintenance and usability issues have popped up. I want Potato Candies to look and read as majestic and beautiful as the name deserves. So, just to give a heads up, here is where the site will soon be heading.

New Layout

This Wednesday I will be launching a new layout (look at me using the work ‘launching’ like an idot). I am going to be addressing a few problems with this update. The primary reasons are navigation and content. This way as our little Potato Candy grows, things can stay organized and accessible. Heard?

FoodBuzz Featured Publisher and Adds

I was recently accepted as a Foodbuzz.com featured publisher which is just fan-damn-tastic. I have also chosen to tryout placing a Foodbuzz add on my page. Yeah, I know this makes me a tool, but why not try and find a way to make a buck of the second-rate success that my modest page is having. The new layout will make these adds less obtrusive and make me feel better about corporatizing my soul.

Photos

Lets keep this simple people. I want this page to look great and crowded blogs are stressful and unreadable. Photos are the lynch pin of any food blog. As I have been known to say in my kitchens from the cafe to home, “Don’t just plate it up, church it up.” So goes the same for the blog. I don’t just want to throw food on here and kick the bell. I am wiping the rim, throwing on some css-coolie and a sprig of html-herbage and rolling it out the line.

So, come Wednesday and take a look at the new layout and post. Questions? Don’t hesitate to ask. Wanna call me a sell-out for accommodating the adds? Go for it. You’re not telling me anything I don’t already know.

Kisses.

a