Archive for the 'admin' Category

An $8.50 salad

Published by Hal on June 9, 2008 in admin and observations of food. 1 Comment

I went out for lunch today, because life got in the way of going to the grocery store this weekend and, unfortunately, hunger stops for no one, not even two weddings and monsoon-like downpouring of water (and the subsequent flooding that keeps people from getting home in a timely manner from said weddings).

And I must tell you, I’ve been fleeced. I knew the restaurant I chose was expensive, but I thought that, surely, a salad would not be terrible. After all, the components, while not as cheap as they once were, still are not very expensive and pound-for-pound, are much less expensive than other options.

$8.50 later, I am a little annoyed.  $8.50 paid for a half a tomato, two tablespoons of cheese, a quarter of a shredded carrot, a half a chicken breast, one crumbled strip of bacon, 1/4 head of lettuce, and 1/4 cup of dressing.

I don’t have solid figures to break this down for you, but I know I could have purchased enough raw materials to make at least 3-4 salads for that same price. From a boutique health food store.

Can you tell I’m annoyed? I’m going to the grocery tonight, and will probably buy these same components to have this same salad again later this week. And I’ll be able to eat 4 times for the amount of money it cost to eat just my lunch today.

Keep this perspective when you think about that dinner from Applebee’s or Friday’s you might order tonight.

—

So, Joseph from Louisville sent me an email asking me where I’ve been.

I’ve been horrible about writing for the last two months, but here’s why:

  1. I’ve been extremely busy between work and personal commitments, and
  2. I’m not immune to food price inflation, which leads to
  3. I haven’t been cooking very much.
  4. However, the item in number 2 some how hasn’t stopped me from going out to eat, which probably results from the item in number 1.
  5. I also didn’t realize that I had enough of a fan following that someone would actually miss me (Thank you, Joseph!)

So, in short, I’ve been eating, but I haven’t been cooking very much. I do have a recipe I should share with you, and several food places to write about. And, now that I’m aware someone is paying attention, maybe that’ll light enough of a fire to post more frequently. Don’t expect a new recipe every day (when I started out, I didn’t realize how expensive, in both time and money, that kind of commitment would take), but I’ll make it a stated goal to do this at least once a week going forward.

bourbon hal glaze

Published by Hal on April 21, 2008 in admin. 0 Comments

In case I haven’t made it clear enough, I use a wonderful software for tracking who visits my site, how they get here, and what they do when they are here (see the “Legal” section).

So, what I do see when I open my email this morning to view the keyword hits to this site? “bourbon hal glaze”

Is someone trying to glaze me and cook me? Should I be horrified? I’m not, but I am thoroughly amused. In case you are wonder that site that should hit, here it is.

Here’s what else comes up for “bourbon hal glaze.”

I think they meant “ham,” and not “hal.” Oops :) If it was you, send me an email and let me know–you’ve just become famous to the common culinarians!

—

Where have I been? Okay, so here’s what happens–you get really excited about this idea, decide to try your hand, and start running this like a business. Then, you realize just how hard work it is, and you slow down. Your job gets in the way, and it’s hard to post again. And, finally, you eat nearly every other meal for the last two weeks out. Not even good places out. McDonald’s out. Not healthy. Not write worthy. So, no posts from me. I’ll get back into the swing of things again, I promise :)

Come Out, Come Out, Where-ever You Are!

Published by Hal on March 27, 2008 in admin. 1 Comment

Stacie gently reminded me that it has been a very long time since I updated. Can you tell there’s been a bit of a shift in the way I run this site? I started out with a very specific goal in mind, then decided I was trying too hard. Now, I’m going in completely the opposite direction :) What I need to do is find a happy medium.

I promise, soon there will be food! I have this evening free–I’ll get some posts set up then :)

Yours,
The Common Culinarian!

Curiously Absent

Published by Hal on March 3, 2008 in admin. 0 Comments

Dear readers,

I have neglected you for the last several days. My sincerest apologies. I’ve been terribly busy with work (it’s that time of year for an accountant!), but I haven’t stopped cooking.

There are four or five posts in the queue that need to be finished. So, content is coming, I promise!

In the meantime, some things to look forward to:

1. I took the ads off the site. Why isn’t terribly important, but the end result to you is that things are cleaner. Hopefully you’ll appreciate it!

2. I’m now participating in a food-blog search engine. I’ll be replacing the search widget soon to reflect that :)

3. I’ve updated the Legal page, indicating some of the information that is collected as a result of you viewing this site. None of this should be a surprise to anyone, but I thought it needed saying.

4. I’m also looking at a mechanism that will allow me to keep multiple blogs on this site. Which means: when I implement said mechanism, this site will go down for a few hours while I’m upgrading. I think I’d decided on a tool, but I need to research how to implement it with minimal disruption.

So–thank you for sticking around! I will have some original content soon; maybe even Mrs. Culinarian will get in on the act (ahm… *hinthinthint*).

Always,
The Common Culinarian

S**** B*** Party Fare

Published by Hal on February 4, 2008 in admin. 0 Comments

Some of you probably think I’m nuts for not posting what we were having for our party that happened the same day at the Super Bowl :) That’s because posting recipes and images of the food requires some planning and preparing the food ahead of time. That does work so well when you are cooking to feed 15 plus people, but there are only 2 of you in the house at any given moment.

However, in the next couple of days, you’ll see: lasagna (both meat and meat-less), bourbon slush, chocolate eclair cake, breadsticks, and a special cookie. Never you fear, I have plenty to write about for the next several days! Get ready for some tasty goodness (and possibly a guess post from Mrs. Culinarian!)

Updated Website

Published by Hal on January 1, 2008 in admin. 0 Comments

I just performed some site maintenance. Please let me know if something on the site doesn’t work like you expect it to, using the “Contact Me” form in the menu bar (or, if that doesn’t work–blog [at] commonculinarian [dot] com).

Thanks!

Looking for a new blog to read?

Published by Hal on December 20, 2007 in admin. 4 Comments

In an effort to increase readership, I’m participating in a “blog swap,” of sorts. Michael Martine is a blog writing consultant who is hosting this swap. If you’ve come here, from there, welcome to the Common Culinarian. You can check out the “About Me” page to see a little more about this blog. In short, I started this blog over Thanksgiving to post food information (i.e., recipes, techniques, shortcuts, reviews, you name it) for the person who is busy and/or on a budget, like me, but doesn’t want to sacrifice the quality of his/her food. I also try to educate, because countless people have said to me “I don’t know how to cook.” Bollocks. Everyone can cook, if you have a little patience and some tenacity for this skill.

For my regular readers, check out this link, to the swap, to see some fledging bloggers and what they have to offer. Check back a few times, as this post is very new (I was actually the first commenter, and I just happened upon the blog looking for the new layout!).

Happy reading!

Check out the new layout!

Published by Hal on December 20, 2007 in admin. 0 Comments

I have been shopping for a new layout for sometime, because the old four column thing wasn’t working for me. Enter K2, from the designers of the original Kubrick style on Wordpress. It had what I was looking for: three columns, a clean style, a customizable header, and “menu bar” style page links.

These were important to me because: four columns used up too much screen real estate, and felt cramped to me; I don’t want you to be distracted by lots of visual clutter; I wanted to use a picture in my header for a long time, but this always looked hard; and the page links thing is because of the screen real estate issue. I actually want java-style drop down menus so I can add the categories and blog-roll to the menu, but this will do. Any kind hearted developer want to help me out with this?

I still need to customize the style sheet, as my wife pointed out, there are some stylistic elements that need to change. I’ll get to that over my Christmas break. Let me know what you think about the new format!

Observations from the Grocery Store

Published by Hal on December 16, 2007 in admin and observations of food. 1 Comment

I saw these in the grocery store today:

Mexican Wedding Cookies? I always thought these were called “Danish Wedding Cookies?” And, on that note, I know Keebler use to make them, but apparently they don’t now? What’s up with that? I loved these things and they show up a lot around this time of year.

Does anyone have a Mexi-Danish Wedding Cookie recipe to share? Pictures? I’d love to post your contribution!

On a side note, you’ll notice commonculinarian.com is now sportin’ ads. Gotta pay the bills–and, remember, if you like the content on this site, please tell a friend and ask your friend to tell a friend.

Speaking of the business end of things, I’d like to re-do the site style by the end of the year. But, I’m being very particular about the features I’d like to see so we’ll see how that happens. I’m also testing a recipe database that I’d like to go live with. However, entering the first recipe, I broke it–so, it’s back to testing before I go live. Is there anything you’d like to see? Comments or suggestions? Let me know at blog [at] commonculinarian.com

Updated Functionality

Published by Hal on December 13, 2007 in admin. 0 Comments

As an FYI, I just added a tool that allows you to subscribe to post comments. Please let me know if it works, or if I need to work with a little bit.

That’s been on of the problems I’ve had with reading and using blogs, that it’s hard to track comments that are made (I can see all the comments made and that I made through my admin site, but I’m afraid that I’ve commented to a reader, and they’ve missed it because they had to manually go back and check for a comment).

Have a good day!

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