blog mentor Archives - Dine and Dish

A New Look {Recipe: Pumpkin Spice Chex Snack Mix}

Kristen — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 01:32:35 +0000

Well, hi there! I can’t tell you how happy I am to have you all see my new design and to welcome you to the new home of Dine & Dish. This has been such a long time coming and it feels so good to have something clean and fresh. I know it’s quite the change, but I think it’s for the good. I hope you agree!

Besides the actual look of the blog, not a lot has changed. Like I mentioned in my previous blog post, my goal was to simplify and that’s exactly what I’ve done!

Read on for a little tour of the blog, this fantastic Pumpkin Spice Chex Snack Mix recipe, and a very special giveaway I wanted to share with you!…

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Ask a Blogger – All About Giveaways (Recipe: 10 Minute Mushroom Spaghetti Sauce)

Kristen — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 03:32:35 +0000

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:

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.
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.
Since it is a sponsor free giveaway, you will just want to put somewhere in the post a disclaimer like “I love … 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.
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 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

1/4 cup oil
1 onion, minced
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 lb mushroom, cut or sliced
1 cup tomato (fresh or canned)
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Heat oil; brown garlic, onion, mushrooms and parsley.
Add all other ingredients.
Simmer 10 minutes.

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

Blogging Mentors (Recipe – Chocolate Cocoa Pancakes)

Kristen — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 02:40:27 +0000

My Grandma Sumner was an extremely charitable woman. Even though she had a pretty tough life, her attitude was one of positiveness and looking forward instead of behind. Her house always had bowls of dog and cat food outside for any stray animals that came around. She had numerous people in her neighborhood who considered her a surrogate mom. Even in her late 80’s, she would walk up to the senior citizen center to “take care of the old people.” She was quite poor when it came to money, but extremely rich in love, kindness and friendship. She has always been an inspiration to me, and her example of helping others instead of competing with others has always stayed with me.

It is this attitude of mentoring and helping others to succeed that brought about Adopt-a-Blogger in the first place. I never have understood those people who would run over people to get to the top. I guess I am just not that competitive. I have found that building a firm foundation and helping others along the way is the best way to achieve what you want to achieve. If you have knowledge, share it. If you have strengths, share it. If you have a way to help others, do it.

I am so excited to announce that Adopt-a-Blogger #4 has been our biggest Adopt-a-Blogger yet with almost 140 participants! We still have a small handful of bloggers who would love to be adopted. If you are an experienced blogger and missed out on signing up, please let me know so I can find the rest of the bloggers adoptive homes!

If you had signed up, please check out the spreadsheet with the matches, and please contact your match ASAP. The adopt-a-blogger guidelines are very loose for a reason. Build your relationship, find out how you can help each other, and work together to have a successful partnership. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me! Please remember to let me know of any posts you make about your adopt a blogger relationships. I’ll do my best to link back from Dine & Dish!

If you want to use a badge to promote Adopt-a-Blogger on your blog, please feel free to take this one. If you need the html code, just let me know.

Thank you again for participating! For those of you here for a recipe, these Chocolate Cocoa Pancakes are sure to tempt your tastebuds. Using Scharffen Berger cocoa (a company that is well known for being extremely supportive of food bloggers and the food blogger community), these pancakes were rich, delicious and almost too dessert like for breakfast!

Chocolate Cocoa Pancakes (adapted from Recipezaar)

14 min | 10 min prep

10 pancakes

1 cup milk

1 egg

2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons powdered sugar

In a small bowl, combine milk, egg, vanilla and butter; whisk until blended.

In another bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda and salt; mix well.

Add milk mixture; whisk just until dry ingredients are moistened.

(Batter will be slightly lumpy.) Heat griddle over medium heat until hot.

For each pancake, pour scant 1/4 cup batter into griddle.

Cook 1-2 minutes or until batter is set around edges.

Carefully turn over pancake; cook 1-2 minutes or until pancakes are cooked through.

Repeat with remaining batter.

Sprinkle pancakes with powdered sugar; serve warm with desired toppings.

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Adopt-a-Blogger #4 (Recipe: Double Quick No Knead Dinner Rolls)

Kristen — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:42:42 +0000

Since it has been 22 days since my last post, you would think that I would be bursting at the seams with profound things to share with you! I don’t have anything profound, but I do have some great news for those of you who have been waiting and waiting and waiting… this post is the official launch of Adopt-a-Blogger #4! I’ll get to Adopt-a-Blogger in just a minute, but before I do I want to share a couple of pieces of important information.

If you don’t know about Lydia from The Perfect Pantry and her Drop in and Decorate – Cookies for Donation event, please head over to her website now to get the lowdown. Lydia is the poster mom for Adopt-a-Blogger. Over the past 3 adoptions, Lydia has adopted 3 different people and has taken them under her wing and has gone above and beyond mentoring her adoptees. Lydia has given of her time, talent and expertise to her adopted bloggers. Another way Lydia gives back, and encourages others to do the same, is through her Drop in and Decorate event. Please take a few minutes to go check out Lydia’s website and consider hosting a Drop in and Decorate event of your own!

Next… Kai Wilson is one of the key people who helped me get through the time when Dine & Dish was hacked a couple months back. Kai is one of the smartest WordPress guru’s I know. She knows how to help keep your blog safe, knows the ins and outs of WordPress plug-ins and is just overall a very smart lady! Kai offers her services at a very reasonable rate, and she tends to also go above and beyond for her clients. She has a couple new websites in the works that will offer “spa like” services for your blog. For those of you who are like me and just want to blog and not have to worry about the behind the scenes technical stuff, Kai is the woman for you! Check out www.theblogspa.com (up and running soon!) and Blog A-and-E for more about Kai. Follow Kai on Twitter to contact her for services – great for newbies and veterans alike! @Kaiberie.

Now…. are you ready for Adopt-a-Blogger #4? If so, please read this post in its entirety!

I’m excited to kick off the 4th round of Adopt a Blogger. Thank you so much to all of you who have made this blog event a success! I appreciate your participation and commitment to making our food blogging community a friendly and helpful one.

Now for the details on how you can participate!

If you were adopted in one of the previous adopt a blogger events, consider adopting someone this time around. If you adopted before, you can adopt again. I am limiting the number of potential adoptees to 50 for this round. So, I am looking for 50 newbies and 50 experienced food bloggers. First come, first serve basis. If you miss it this time around, we’ll get you next time! (Note – I will increase the number of slots *if* I get enough interest from the experienced bloggers to adopt the newbies!)

Newbies – Newbies are food bloggers who have a blog that has been up for a year or less. If you are just starting out, you must have had at least 1 month worth of consistent posting on your blog.
Experienced Bloggers – Anyone who has maintained an active food blog for over 1 year. If you have a blog that is younger than a year old, but feel like you have the whole food blogging thing down and could provide some expertise to someone just starting out, then please feel free to sign up as a veteran.
Prior to the adoption process, you will mention Adopt a Blogger with a link back to this post in either your blog or a Tweet on Twitter. We typically are heavy on newbies and short on Veteran’s, so please spread the word so everyone who wants to can be adopted!
Newbies will commit to writing one post about their Veteran. Veterans will commit to doing the same. Trying a recipe out and posting this on your blog would count as well, as long as you are introducing each other and the blogs.
You will each add each other to your respective blogrolls.
At the end of the 3 month mentoring time, where the Veteran will help the newbie find their way, I ask that the Veteran write one post linking back to this Adopt-A-Blogger post with a piece of advice for new bloggers. I also ask that the newbies write one post about what they have learned about blogging during the 3 month mentorship. Please note that by three months, I don’t mean that you have to be in constant contact with each other. Just keep in touch with each other for the three months and be available to ask/answer any questions that might pop up.
If you are interested in participating, please leave a comment on this post indicating if you are a newbie or a veteran. Please make sure you enter your website information in the form as well as an email address. If that information isn’t included, I can’t get a hold of you which means you won’t be able to participate!
Once we have reached have reached 50 newbies and 50 experienced bloggers, I will carefully match you all up and the adoption will be official!
It will be your responsibility to check back at Dine & Dish regularly to see if adoptions are posted. I will not be sending out individual emails with the information. We had a lot of people sign up last go around who did not fulfill their commitment. If you cannot commit to mentoring and/or learning from another blogger and the conditions above, please do not sign up. Thank you!
For anyone concerned about Adopt-a-Blogger conflicting with the madness of the holidays, don’t worry… matches won’t be announced until after January 1st!

And now, the recipe!

Double Quick No Knead Dinner Rolls (from Betty Crocker.com)

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 Tbs Sugar
1 Tsp salt
1 package regular or quick active dry yeast
1 cup very warm water
2 Tbs shortening
1 egg

Mix 1 1/4 cups of the flour, the sugar, salt and yeast in large bowl. Add water, shortening and egg; beat with spoon until smooth. Stir in remaining flour until smooth. Scrape batter from side of bowl. Cover and let rise in warm place about 30 minutes or until double.

Grease 12 regular-size muffin cups. Stir down batter by beating about 25 strokes. Spoon into muffin cups. Let rise 20 to 30 minutes or until batter rounds over tops of cups.

Heat oven to 400ºF. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.

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