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).

The post Ask a Blogger Question #3 – Popular Food Photography Sites appeared first on Dine and Dish.

“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

The post Ask a Blogger – All About Giveaways (Recipe: 10 Minute Mushroom Spaghetti Sauce) appeared first on Dine and Dish.

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.

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