My little blog turns one year old today. In retrospect, I probably should have picked a more distinct googleable name. Or gone with my original choice of "Pushpanathan". I was thinking I could've named it "The Lentilist" but that might be a little too typecasting.
Still, over its short life there's been 85 posts which have been visited 1,252 times (with 2,477 pageviews) from 21 different countries. The blog hasn't been as productive lately as it was in its early halcyon days. By which I mean I haven't been as productive. Still, I've keep to the Sunday Frugal Sunday schedule since getting back from the Dominican (even if an entire month was about cabbage and another entire month was basically reviews of California restaurants most people will never get to go to).
So happy birthday! Who knows what adventures the blog will have between now and when it becomes unprofitable?
Showing posts with label Meta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Meta. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Frugal Veggie Semiversary
Six months ago today, I started the Frugal Veggie blog and put up the first post (appropriately enough about lentils). Since that time I've done 62 posts (including this one) and been visited 718 times with 1492 pageviews. These visits have come from 5 continents and 17 countries. The majority of my entries have been recipes and restaurant reviews (respectively about 2/5ths and 1/5 of my posts) but posts about my garden or animals eating stuff in my kitchen are also up there.
Who knows where this blog will be on its real anniversary 6 months from now.
Who knows where this blog will be on its real anniversary 6 months from now.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
I knew a girl and her name was Julie...
I was on a plane recently (Perceptive readers may be able to guess where from) and so had a bunch of movies to chose from to watch. I ended up watching Julie & Julia or, as it might be titled, Women With Supportive Husbands Learn About Food And Their Feelings. Snark aside, I did enjoy it. The movie follows Julia Child and Julie Powell. One of them is a famous chef who served in the OSS in China during WWII, wrote a groundbreaking cookbook and became, perhaps, the first television cook. The other is a food blogger. So there is a bit of a disparity in terms of interestingness – certainly I did muse during my viewing that it might have been more interesting as a Julia Child biopic rather than cutting back and forth with Ms. Powell.
Still, as a food blogger, it is kinda neat to see a movie about a fellow food blogger. Now, in terms of blogging we are very different: she scorns vegetarians and I think she uses way too much butter and other unhealthy stuff [also, she had lots of readers --ed]. It is interesting what the movie shows about this type of blogging though. Her blog had a schtick, she would make every recipe in Julia Child's cookbook. That means that her blog had a lot more influence on her life than mine does. It's really a tail wagging the dog type thing, where she is always preparing meals to suit her blog. I don't really do that, if I haven't made an interesting bloggable item than I'd do something like, y'know, put up a post about a movie I saw. That said, I have made some meals to have something to blog about when I otherwise would have made something simpler.
The movie also shins a light on the inherent narcissism of blogging. Although, if you think about it, there is an inherent narcissism in writing. At least with food blogging you get, say, a recipe for chickpea soup rather than "Putting my tweets on facebook! #twitter #facebook". Julie becomes more and more obsessed with the blog and her readership that she neglects the real life relationship she has with her husband. I don't really have any comparable incidents, though I do like looking through the site statistics to see where my readers are coming from.
Amy Adams did a good job as Julie Powell and Meryl Streep did an excellent Julia Child. There was a lot of physical comedy just based on Child's height relative to everyone else. The food looked good too, there was an interesting article in The Atlantic by the person who made the food for the movie on her tricks of the trade (though I would be interesting how they did the scene where Julia Child cuts a small mountain of onion). I don't know if it's as entertaining as this (I linked there before, but it's still funny).
Still, as a food blogger, it is kinda neat to see a movie about a fellow food blogger. Now, in terms of blogging we are very different: she scorns vegetarians and I think she uses way too much butter and other unhealthy stuff [also, she had lots of readers --ed]. It is interesting what the movie shows about this type of blogging though. Her blog had a schtick, she would make every recipe in Julia Child's cookbook. That means that her blog had a lot more influence on her life than mine does. It's really a tail wagging the dog type thing, where she is always preparing meals to suit her blog. I don't really do that, if I haven't made an interesting bloggable item than I'd do something like, y'know, put up a post about a movie I saw. That said, I have made some meals to have something to blog about when I otherwise would have made something simpler.
The movie also shins a light on the inherent narcissism of blogging. Although, if you think about it, there is an inherent narcissism in writing. At least with food blogging you get, say, a recipe for chickpea soup rather than "Putting my tweets on facebook! #twitter #facebook". Julie becomes more and more obsessed with the blog and her readership that she neglects the real life relationship she has with her husband. I don't really have any comparable incidents, though I do like looking through the site statistics to see where my readers are coming from.
Amy Adams did a good job as Julie Powell and Meryl Streep did an excellent Julia Child. There was a lot of physical comedy just based on Child's height relative to everyone else. The food looked good too, there was an interesting article in The Atlantic by the person who made the food for the movie on her tricks of the trade (though I would be interesting how they did the scene where Julia Child cuts a small mountain of onion). I don't know if it's as entertaining as this (I linked there before, but it's still funny).
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Sunday Frugal Sunday
Hello, my neglected readers. When I started this blog I mentioned I had created this as a summer hobby (in lieu of getting a goldfish named Pushpanathan1). Since that time the blog has gotten literally tens of hits2! While traffic has not been noticeably down during September, my posting has been. Whycome? I was really busy in September (September included the first couple weeks of October just as the 60s actually continued until 19753). This not only meant that I didn't have time to post but also that I wasn't eating very interesting food: lots of pasta with tomato sauce and cans of chickpeas (that's not pasta with tomatoes and chickpeas, but two separate items: I actually more than once just had a can of chickpeas for dinner). However, things have calmed down a bit. So I'll resume blogging, but probably the once-every-day posts some periods of the summer had won't return. Here is what I will do: try to make sure to post every Sunday. That doesn't mean I won't post in the rest of the week necessarily, but that there will be a type to check and see new content.
In lieu of a recipe or restaurant review, here is fascinating look at the history of modern ketchup (via a comment thread on home-made ketchup at The Paupered Chef)
1 I have since found out that Pushpanathan is not pronounced Push-pan-a-than but Push-pa-NA-than. This disappointed me greatly and my hypothetical goldfish will need a new name.
2 Actually I've gotten over 1000 pageviews. But I like that expression.
3 Many decades are like this. For example, the 50s lasted from 1948-1963.
In lieu of a recipe or restaurant review, here is fascinating look at the history of modern ketchup (via a comment thread on home-made ketchup at The Paupered Chef)
1 I have since found out that Pushpanathan is not pronounced Push-pan-a-than but Push-pa-NA-than. This disappointed me greatly and my hypothetical goldfish will need a new name.
2 Actually I've gotten over 1000 pageviews. But I like that expression.
3 Many decades are like this. For example, the 50s lasted from 1948-1963.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Housekeeping
During the year I'll probably be updating this blog not as frequently as I did in the summer. I'm considering picking a day of the week and making sure I have an entry on that day but I'm not sure. I'll keep you posted.
My parents drove up to see me (went to Veg Out with them) and provided me with some groceries. I haven't really been able to take advantage of it because there have been lots of free food/meals out in the last week.
On that subject, I went to Massey's Indian Restaurant. Ordered the Alloo Paratha which is supposed to come "with smooth potato stuffing". There was, in fact, no potato stuffing – smooth or otherwise. I was very disappointed.
I was really lazy one night (home late and had had snacks) so I just had a can of chickpeas and chili flakes. Surprisingly tasty.
Finally, I have an awesome looking red chili growing. Isn't it a beaut:
My parents drove up to see me (went to Veg Out with them) and provided me with some groceries. I haven't really been able to take advantage of it because there have been lots of free food/meals out in the last week.
On that subject, I went to Massey's Indian Restaurant. Ordered the Alloo Paratha which is supposed to come "with smooth potato stuffing". There was, in fact, no potato stuffing – smooth or otherwise. I was very disappointed.
I was really lazy one night (home late and had had snacks) so I just had a can of chickpeas and chili flakes. Surprisingly tasty.
Finally, I have an awesome looking red chili growing. Isn't it a beaut:
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Julie & Julia & Food Photography
Mere months after I started food blogging, a movie about food blogging is coming out! Coincidence? Yes. The movie has been over-hyped in the NYT but there have been some interesting articles. In particular, there have been two fascinating articles in The Atlantic by the lead food wrangler (not her actual title) for the movie. There are a lot of stories in food photography about glue-for-milk and the such but all the food in Julie & Julia is real.
It made me think a bit about the food photography I do for this blog. I think the photographs have improved (although the one from the Indian restaurant wasn't great). I've not though it necessary to include the whole plate in the picture which gives it a better look than the miles-of-ugly-tablecloth-and-the-food-in-the-middle look of the early blog (also, I have a better tablecloth). I mean, compare this early pasta picture and this later one. One looks like something you'd want to eat, the other does not. I usually snap a few photos and pick the best one.
I think even the early pictures that I liked could do with some cropping. this was one of my favourite early pictures... but I think I prefer this version:
It made me think a bit about the food photography I do for this blog. I think the photographs have improved (although the one from the Indian restaurant wasn't great). I've not though it necessary to include the whole plate in the picture which gives it a better look than the miles-of-ugly-tablecloth-and-the-food-in-the-middle look of the early blog (also, I have a better tablecloth). I mean, compare this early pasta picture and this later one. One looks like something you'd want to eat, the other does not. I usually snap a few photos and pick the best one.
I think even the early pictures that I liked could do with some cropping. this was one of my favourite early pictures... but I think I prefer this version:
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Housecleaning Updates
So to add another hit of meta to this blog I thought I'd give some updates on previous posts.
I've updated my review of Khmer Thai to include a picture of the restaurant and fixed some embarrassing spelling errors that my friend Leo pointed out.
I did perform the promised update for my four sad vegetables post where I tripled the sauce. (I added the same sauce as before, but as there were now half of much vegetables which had gotten half of the previous sauce...) It was better, though approaching too much salt, but still nothing to write home about. I'll have to work a bit more on it.
Finally, I was challenged to go one step further and cook pasta directly in the sauce. So I did. I diluted it one part sauce to one part water and cooked it down with the pasta.
Sauce-Cooked Pasta
Like anytime you cook pasta on high its going to spatter a bit. In retrospect, I should've cooked it lower for longer. I felt the pasta was a bit too al dente for my taste but I can see how some people might prefer it. The sauce really thickened up though, not just loosing the extra water I'd added.
I've updated my review of Khmer Thai to include a picture of the restaurant and fixed some embarrassing spelling errors that my friend Leo pointed out.
I did perform the promised update for my four sad vegetables post where I tripled the sauce. (I added the same sauce as before, but as there were now half of much vegetables which had gotten half of the previous sauce...) It was better, though approaching too much salt, but still nothing to write home about. I'll have to work a bit more on it.
Finally, I was challenged to go one step further and cook pasta directly in the sauce. So I did. I diluted it one part sauce to one part water and cooked it down with the pasta.
Sauce-Cooked Pasta
Like anytime you cook pasta on high its going to spatter a bit. In retrospect, I should've cooked it lower for longer. I felt the pasta was a bit too al dente for my taste but I can see how some people might prefer it. The sauce really thickened up though, not just loosing the extra water I'd added.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
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