Adding Photos to Banner Background

It's a new year and I feel that it's time for a slightly new look for my site. So in visiting some of my favorites I've noticed that they have photos as background to their banner. Can anyone share how I can use my photos in the banner without destroying the text?

Thanks.

Link Exchanges/Requests

I thought this was a pretty good post on do's and don'ts regarding link exchanges/requests.

(Thanks to All Things Financial for the referral.)

Food blogs for Gourmet Travellers

If anybody's interested I've wriiten a story on food bloggers for our local glossy food mag. They haven't posted it on their site but via Tomato you can click through to a full-sized image of the spread on Flickr.
It's mainly about Aussie blogs and why so many Asian women have food blogs (as briefed by the features editor). But I do mention Pim, the Scent of Green Bananas and Blogging By Mail.
There was so much to say and so little space. Sorry to anybody who feels left out. I may publish a "writer's" cut when I return from a short trip.

Food blogs for Gourmet Travellers

If anybody's interested I've wriiten a story on food bloggers for our local glossy food mag. They haven't posted it on their site but via you can click through to a full-sized image of the spread on Flickr.
It's mainly about Aussie blogs and why so many Asian women have food blogs (as briefed by the features editor). But I do mention Pim, the Scent of Green Bananas and Blogging By Mail.
There was so much to say and so little space. Sorry to anybody who feels left out. I may publish a "writer's" cut when I return from a short trip.

Food Blogger Face Off on Feb 6

Never know what you'll find cruising the net ... By the way, face off is what the site called it.

Link to more information

FRom the Ferry Plaza webpage:


Monday Feb 6
5:30 pm

COMMONWEALTH CLUB: Food Blogger Face Off
Food Blogger Face Off: The Bay Area is home to many fascinating food blogs. The content is fresh and witty, the recipes sublime and the recommendations and reviews priceless. Here is your chance to meet the creative talents behind the most popular Bay Area blogs. The panel discussion will focus on the people behind the blogs - how they got started, how they keep going and what's next. Wine reception and snacks will be served before the program.

Panelists Include:
BRUCE COLE, Blogger, Saute Wednesday
HEIDI SWANSON, Blogger, 101 Cookbooks
PIM TECHAMUANVIVIT, Blogger, Chez Pim
ALDER YARROW, Blogger, Vinography
AMANDA BERNE, Food Writer, San Francisco Chronicle - Moderator



Mon. Feb 6 - 5:30 p.m., Check-in 6:00 p.m. - 7:15 p.m., Program Ferry Building, second floor, Port Commission Hearing Room, 1 The Embarcadero, San Francisco $12 for Members, $22 for Non-members To map directions to this program, visit Google Maps.
Program Organizer: Cathy Curtis
Co-sponsored by the Ferry Building Marketplace.

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Happy Lunar New Year!

Dear fellow food bloggers,

Even if you don't celebrate Lunar New Year I want to wish you all health, happiness and prosperity in the Year of the Dog. Woof, woof!

I noticed a lot of my friends knew the general concepts about the traditions of firecrackers and lion dances, but little else regarding the festivities.

I decided to write a series of posts for the coming week discussing the origins, symbolism, foods and feasts of Chinese Lunar New Year. Here is the link for the Part 1.

I hope it is entertaining, interesting and maybe even useful (want to impress a Chinese friend?).

Best,
Rose

The post was written by Rose of The Hungry Rose

question about technorati

I just finished my post for IMBB#22 (hosted by Amy of "Cooking with Amy" I emailed her with the relevant details but I'm afraid I'm choking on the Technorati tag thing so haven't added it to my post. I looked at their Terms of Service and this portion gives me pause:

excerpt from www.technorati.com/about/tos.html

User acknowledges and agrees that if User uses any of the Services to contribute Content to the Site, Technorati is hereby granted a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, transferable right to fully exploit such Content (including all related intellectual property rights) and to allow others to do so.

I thought I had sent a post about this here but I can't seem to find it. So I will ask again. Is there anyone who understands legalese? Is this really saying that if I use the services to add a link to my site, I am granting Technorati "non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, transferable right to fully exploit" the content of the link I posted?? (It's not that what I write is all that fabulous; I just don't like the idea that someone else can just delve in, edit and use anything there.

Sorry to seem alarmist.

-Elizabeth

How to Get Your Blog Name to Link Back in Blogger

A while ago there was a post about using your blog header/name to link you back to home pages and it was discovered that blogger did not automatically create that function for you. No little white hand for us.

See Usability Pet Peeve

I finally had time to sit and play with blogger and there is an easy fix if this is what you want to do.

Treat it like a link. On the settings page where you blog's title would normally go, make it a link. For example (a href="http://yourblognamehere.blogspot.com")Your Blog Name Here(/a)
replacing the parens with carats, of course

You can also do something similar in your subtitle, where it will appear with an underline just inviting your reader to click.

I've just done this on my practice blog, but will probably fix up the ole Blog Appetit with this here fancy new cityslicker trick sometime soon.

The Joy of Blogger (The DIY blogging site) -- Can you teach a free program to do new tricks???

Let me know if you try it and if it works for you.

Faith

UPDATE: Please see Paul's comment below. His way is easier, neater and works great. Thanks!

[Of interest] Food blog book - call for writers

Hey everyone, I got this email and wanted to share...


Hello! This is June Low from Marshall Cavendish International Asia. We at the Cuisine department in Marshall Cavendish have watched the food blogging community with great interest and are interested in publishing a book that is written by a collective group of bloggers. We seek your assistance and partnership in this book project.

Here are the details: In the spirit of giving and corporate responsibility, Marshall Cavendish International Asia is seeking to publish a book written by food bloggers around the world. All royalties from this book will be donated to UNICEF. Marshall Cavendish is a major international publisher of books, directories, magazines and partworks. Our philosophy of enriching life through knowledge transcends boundaries of geography and culture.

In line with this vision, our products reach across the globe in 13 languages, and our publishing network spans Asia, Europe and the USA. Our imprint, Marshall Cavendish Cuisine, has won several Gourmand World Cookbook Awards — the Oscars for food and wine publications — and epitomises the culinary face of New Asia. For more information on Marshall Cavendish, please visit www.marshallcavendish.com

Hungry is a proposed culinary book that seeks to provide insight into the global food blogging community. The contents of this book will feature a collection of 1 page feature write-up and 2-3 original recipes contributed by variety food bloggers. Recipes can include anything from everyday fare and favourite foods to elaborate dishes, the only criteria being an injection of originality, personality and innovation into the recipes contributed.

WHAT IS TO BE SUBMITTED: - 2 or 3 original recipes with an anecdote - sample pictures of dishes - Deadline 3rd February Please note that, as the Publisher, we reserve the right to select and edit final material and to change the proposed title, structure and extent of the book. We regret to inform you that we would not be able to include all the recipes submitted. All materials selected will be published under our Marshall Cavendish Cuisine imprint.

Please feel free forward this information and to contact me at this email address if you have and further questions. We look forward to hearing back from you. Best regards, June Low Editor Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Pte Ltd 1 New Industrial Road, Times Centre Singapore 536 196 Email: junelow@sg.marhsallcavendish.com

This post brought to you by Rachael at Fresh Approach

Calling Vegetarians! Calling Vegetable Lovers!

A Veggie Venture is compiling a resource list of

• vegetarian and vegan food blogs
  
• carnivore but veggie-loving food blogs
• even carnivore blogs that make it easy to find their vegetarian and vegetable posts with defined archive categories
• great vegetarian and vegetable cookbooks
  
• inspiring vegetarian and vegetable resources sites
  

Does your blog fit? Don't be shy -- please click here to add your own blog or to share your favorite spots!

Why? Well, let's just say that in a few days, all shall become clear and that it may well be fruitful, er, I mean veggie-ful. ;-)

Drop-down Menu Question

I utilized the great website suggested two posts ago (mandarin) and created menus for all my recipes. But I don't like the "GO" buttons. I would like for my menus to be the kind that when you click on the recipe, it automatically opens that recipe.

What do I change to get rid of the Go button AND let you go to the recipe that's been selected?

If you can't picture what I mean, visit my site: http://cyndicooks.blogspot.com

Please remember you're talking to a newbie (be gentle and use small words : ) )

Thanks

My Flickr Photos on Other Blogs

I've noticed lately (the past couple of days) that when I visit OTHER folks' blogs, their Flickr badges are showing MY photos, not the ones that belong to the blog's owner. Huh?


Thanks,

Cyndi

http://cyndicooks.blogspot.com

Event: Fancy Food Show-San Francisco

Today is the start of the Fancy Food Show. Anyone going? Want to meet up? My cell phone never seems to work at Moscone Center, but the press room might be a good place to meet. Leave a comment if you are interested in "walking the floor" together or trying one of the focused tastings. There's also a California Olive Oil event at 5 over at the W Hotel this evening. Worth stopping by if you are in the area.


This post was written by Amy from Cooking with Amy

p.s. I've redesigned my site, please come take a look when you get a chance, I'd love to hear what you think..!

Expandable Post Help

A couple people asked me on my blog about the "Read More" option, "keep reading," whatever you want to call it so I thought I'd post something here in case anyone else was curious.

There's a previous post about this, I'm just bringing it back to life.

Rachel from BrownBreadIceCream gets all the credit for helping out my blog a few months back.
Here's the link to her solution to the problem. It's totally user-friendly and just reply to this if you have any further questions.

I may be able to be of further assistance :)
Happy Friday!!

Mona

Wonderful Techy Resource for Bloggers

Hi guys, it's my first time posting here. I was having some troubles with alligning photos on my posts so I googled and found this wonderful resource on Mandarin Design. Check it out. It has solved the problems I had in my first French Stories post as I couldn't make the tiny pictures behave the way I wanted them to behave. There are many other easy tips on the site + cut and paste HTML. Hope this is helpful.

Post written by kel @ Green Olive Tree

[Blogger] Expandable Post Summaries

On blogger, I have an expandable post summary option built into my template, whereby "you can choose to display an arbitrary amount of text from the beginning of each post, as a teaser for the whole thing. Then users who want to read the rest of the post can click a link to see the full text" [blogger help]. However I don't always want my post to have it, and it says clearly on the blogger help page that it IS possible to make these exandable post summaries optional, but doesn't say how! Heeeelp!

The Return of the Dreaded Spam

Lately my blog seems to having a surge of popularity...with spammers! While I'm sure a few of my readers would like larger genitals or to help the Royal Family of Ugandazu regain their long-lost family fortune, I'm finding each time I log on, I have a new wave of spam to delete and it's taking up way too much of my time.

If I block the IP address (I use Movable Type), sure enough, a few hours later, there's a new batch from someone else. I am going to try turning off the comments for my old posts...any other tips?

Food Pornographers, REJOICE!

The Saveur 100 is out. Start your salivary glands!

More on Recipe Copyrights

reposted from the Washington Post without permission because I don't trust an article link to stay permanent...

Summary: Article doesn't really say anything definitive about recipes and copyrights, except to always attribute and be polite (what we've been saying here since the beginning!)

Previous Blog S'cool post: Published Recipes

Can a Recipe Be Stolen?

By Joyce Gemperlein
Special to The Washington Post
Wednesday, January 4, 2006; Page F01

Like most teenagers, Dana Simms and 11 other members of the Tilden Woods Swim Team know more about iPods and Google than about pea pods and kugel. So when they began soliciting recipes for a cookbook to benefit cancer research last summer, they were startled that technology and cooking converged.

"We all know about plagiarism, copyright and intellectual property rights issues, but we hadn't given them a thought when it came to the cookbook," said Simms, a junior at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda. When a potential contributor fretted about handing over a recipe for Toll House cookies that appears online, in many cookbooks -- and on bags of semisweet chocolate chips -- "we did begin to worry a little," she said.

The girls knew the legal concepts from high school, and copyright and intellectual property issues were being drummed into them because of lawsuits on downloading music into MP3 players and iPods. But here were similar issues in the kitchen.

Some friends and relatives were hesitant to contribute favorite recipes that had been culled from cookbooks or online databases. Could they be accused of plagiarism or a violation of intellectual property rights? What if the recipes were tweaked? Is using a smidge more mayonnaise in a chicken salad and substituting mango chunks for peaches enough to call the recipe your own? It's one thing to hand down a family recipe from one generation to the next, but what about offering a not-entirely-original recipe for publication in a cookbook, even for a charitable cause?

"What this reflects is a rising awareness over the last 20 years of copyright issues . . . and the chilling effect of copyright enforcement . . . people being intimidated out of using basic common sense about things that would or should never generate a lawsuit," said Siva Vaidhyanathan, author of "Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How it Threatens Creativity."

It's highly unlikely, he said, that anyone would be sued for putting someone else's published recipe -- with or without attribution -- in a charity cookbook or posting it on the Internet where it can be disseminated to millions of cooks almost instantly. In fact, said Vaidhyanathan, an assistant professor of culture and communications at New York University, it would be unusual even to receive a nasty letter about it. "There isn't [big] money at stake."

U.S. copyright law addresses recipes, but what holds sway can be called either ethics or etiquette. Cooking is not considered inventing; rather, it evolves. Copyright law specifies that "substantial literary expression in the form of an explanation or directions," such as a cookbook, can be copyrighted but that a mere list of ingredients cannot receive that protection.

The ethics guidelines of the International Association of Culinary Professionals focus on giving proper attribution to recipes that are published or taught. The association advises using the words "adapted from," "based on" or "inspired by," depending on how much a recipe has been revised. ("Adapted from" is the phrasing favored by The Washington Post and many other newspaper food sections, which, along with culinary instructors, enjoy "fair use" of someone's creation for the purpose of teaching, news reporting, scholarship or research.) The only time a recipe should be printed without attribution, the association contends, is when it has been changed so substantially that it no longer resembles its source.

In cyberspace, however, there's some confusion about where to draw the line. Many Web sites carry warnings about posting "copyrighted" material, but most do not define what that means in cooking circles.

Rachel Rappaport, a Baltimore teacher, operates a blog called Coconut & Lime in which she shares recipes she has liked. She says her understanding -- a common one -- is that if she changes two or three ingredients in a recipe, it becomes her own and requires no attribution.

At the eGullet Society of Culinary Arts & Letters, an online site for epicures, copyright laws and courtesies are a constant topic of discussion, said founder Steven A. Shaw, a lawyer-turned-food writer. Shaw contends that posting a lengthy discussion of legal and ethical conduct, enforcing detailed membership requirements and constant monitoring of content -- including recipes -- keep his site from joining what he calls "the Wild West" of online copyright violations.

For amateur cooks who participate in the Pillsbury Bake-Off, the recipes they are passing off as their own had better be their own. Bake-Off officials perform "originality" searches on the 100 finalists, said Marlene Johnson, senior public relations manager. Contestants whose recipes do not have at least "several significant differences" from any found in a thorough search, she says, are disqualified.

Professional cooks who publish recipes that blatantly copy colleagues' work without attribution are often shunned or gossiped about, but even then, lawsuits are rare.

Washington chef and cookbook author Nora Pouillon said she would not sue if she saw her formula for, say, cherry clafoutis, on a Web site. She'd be the first to say that she based her recipe on versions of the French specialty featuring kirsch-soaked fruit that she had seen or eaten during her childhood in Austria.

Wonderful food, she points out, is more than a recipe. It also is the sum of a cook's experience, eye for detail and technique, plus the quality of the ingredients.

Pouillon said she's flattered if somebody passes along one of her recipes. "It's nice to get credit, but I really feel that a recipe is something to share," she said. On the other hand, if someone is a terrible cook, she said, she would rather that person not tell people that the formula for yam vichyssoise came from her.

All proceeds of "Cooking for the Cure" are donated to cancer research. For a copy, send a check for $15 plus $3 shipping to "Cooking for the Cure," 6900 Stonewood Court, Rockville, Md. 20852, or e-maildanabari89@yahoo.comfor more information.

Joyce Gemperlein, a former food editor, lives in North Bethesda.

posted by McAuliflower of Brownie Points Blog, who seems to be living at her computer this holiday...

Usability Pet Peeve

Just a little usability notice here...

- it would be swell if more food bloggers had their header area link back to their index/home page.

It's surprising how many blogs don't offer an easy way back to the front of their blog after one has been rooting through their archives.

written by McAuliflower of Brownie Points Blog

[HTML] Column Help

My center column shows up centered in IE but not on other browsers. I want it left justified in all browsers. Can someone tell me what I am doing wrong? I have been over the HTML several times and don't see my error.

Michele ~ Chef Michele's Adventures

Keeping your visitors [updated]

[As per the comments, there is alot of debate about this tip. If you google, you will get a LOT of heated discussions on record. I would like to point bloggers to a site that is a quickie intro to accessability in web design esp. relating to the visually impaired. Visit here for that.]

We all work hard to make the best blog we can, no doubt. There are many things we have to master to make it look presentable, it all can be so confusing huh?

One thing I suggest to help your blog be more sticky is to direct links to open in a new window. Back in the early days of aggressive "porn" ads, pop ups plagued us but that seems to have settled down a bit (or maybe thats my filter?)

Anyways, to make your links direct your reader's browser to open a new window (and thus not navigate away from your content and be lost to some other site) use this code.

(Note: Please substitute a back carrot (<) for the back bracket ([) and a forward carrot (>) for a forward bracket (]) in the folllowing link code.

[a target="_NEW" href="http://nikas-culinaria.blogspot.com" rel="tag"]Nika's Culinaria[/a]

and once your do the substitutions, this looks like this:

Nika's Culinaria

Let me know if you have any problems with it!

Nika

(Misc) For Flickr Users

Is there a way to center my Flickr badge, left to right, on my sidebar? Haven't been able to figure out how to move it over? Thanks in advance.

Post written by Sweetnicks from Sweetnicks

Converting OPML to HTML

Does anyone know how to convert OPML into HTML? I've got lots of OPML files, whether from my TypeLists, del.icio.us or Rojo and would like to incorporate them into an html file - but I can't figure out how to do it. Having googled it, it looks like I need to download shareware, but I'm not keen on that, are there any other solutions?

Posted by Silverbrow from Silverbrow on Food

[Calendar] Update on 1000 Recipes?

.

I am reposting this question in hopes someone who may have an answer will comment. Thanks!

Is it safe to assume the 1000 Recipes project is over? Does anyone have a book, or know what is going on with that?

ALSO, is there a DMBLGIT this month?

Thanks ev'body!


This pondering was posted by Rachael from Fresh Approach Cooking

[Browsers] Firefox?

I always edit blogger using Firefox, now I don't have my normal toolbar to add pics and change font size... any idea what might cause this? IE shows everything find. It's only Blogger that is causing me problems, all other websites show up as normal.

Blogger Comment Notification

I used to receive an email anytime someone commented on my blog. Then all of the sudden, I quit getting them, even though people are leaving comments. I checked my "comment notification address" (which hasn't changed) and I don't know what else could be going on. Any advice?

From Amy at Not As Good As Pork Cracklins

Google rank-squashing trick vs sneaky spammers

So, I just got a sneaky bit of comment spam -- so sneaky it's hard to tell if it is spam. The commenter is friendly, chatty, clearly read the post, but then leaves gratuitous links in the middle of it -- the links are relevant, but one in particular gets my attention -- it's a brand new commercial ::cough:: pseudo food blog -- I say pseudo because it's clearly set up to generate ad-click income more than anything else. Anyway... I googled the blog's address, found no legit links and instead, only links on other people's comment pages. Ahah!

Also -- another ahah! I discovered the html attribute (rel="nofollow"), googled that, and found this nifty entry in the google blog. Inserting rel="nofollow" into comment links causes those links to not get any credit in google rankings, therefore defeating the purpose of the spam.

Of course, the easiest thing to do is just delete the spam completely, but sometimes -- as with my most recent case -- the comment may be legit, and it's always nice to have an additional spammer-thwarting tool handy.

This trick has been around for a while, but I've not seen it before, and in light of other recent discussions on sneaky spammers, I thought I'd toss it out here. The google blog entry also contains a list of blog software makers that use rel="nofollow" in their comment coding. I am (for the moment) on an older version of MT (which was doing just fine till the new, paid version came out and the developer of MT-Blacklist stopped updating), but I'll be switching to Wordpress soon and embracing their built-in rel="nofollow" code, not to mention that nifty setting where you can refuse comments that contain more than two links. (Meanwhile, almost every one of my old comment threads are turned off, as the online poker fiends are out to get me in force!)

Hi, I'm relatively new, and still trying to master the art. As I am from the Netherlands I post in Dutch and in English. I would like to have the posts in English easily accessible so you will not have to scroll through all my dutch ramblings ;-). I'm thinking of a sidebar thing as I have now, but that means I have to update the list every time I post in English. Is it possible to automatically file posts in a pool? Sometimes I see file links to e.g. "all my recipes" in other blogs. Would that be possible in Blogger?

(Blogger) Sidebar Issues

My sidebar has been dropped to the bottom for the past few days, and it's driving me a little nutty since I work hard to maintain it. Sometimes it will drop because of an extra long referral link, but there hasn't been one there. Help - please!

From Sweetnicks at Sweetnicks

[Photography] What could the problem be?

I have a Kodak Easy Share camera and when my battereis ran out I used regular AA's. The pics just didn't look as good as with the batteries that came with the cam, so I replace them with titanium ones. Still, the pics look grainy. What could the problem be? I read my booklet and can't see that I am doing anything wrong... my lighting has not changed. Any ideas?

Michele ~ Chef Michele's Adventures

Need help viewing Blogspot blog

I hope someone here might help. I can't see the proper display of a blog called Walks in New York and Elsewhere. This is what I see in every single browser on my OS X Mac (Safari, IE, Netscape, Firefox, Camino):


All the text just disappears below her header. I can "see" it if I select all the text, but that's kind of a drag.

Can anyone identify this problem, and offer a solution? We would much appreciate it.

Thank you all!

click on links?

Hi--I'm a new member. I have an embarrassingly basic question. How do I have click-on links in the body of my post. For instance, if I'm referring to another blog or website, i'd like the reader to be able to click on the name to visit said blog or site. Any help?


This post was written by Sam from Food Blog Scool

Cooking the Old-Fashioned Way - 2nd Edition

Just a reminder - Cooking the Old-Fashioned Way - second edition is coming up January 29, 2006. Hope to see your insights to share with others and be sure and look for Mrs. D's next installment of Flu Journal.


This post was written by Carolyn from 18thC Cuisine

[Photography] Very Low-tech Light Box

If the light box mentioned a few days ago wasn't low-tech enough, then this one definitely is. Plus there's a beginner's primer for cleaning up photos with PhotoShop. (Maybe I'll even open the PhotoShop box that's been on the credenza for months.)

This post was written by Alanna from A Veggie Venture.

IMBB Announcement January 2006

It's baaack!

Come join in the first Is My Blog Burning of 2006, IMBB 22 Use Your Noodle. Here is the permalink, for your convenience.

This post was written by Amy from Cooking with Amy

Slow Pig Blogging Weekend

From Kate Hill's French Cooking Adventures.

Check out the details here.




This post was written by Sam from Becks & Posh

Experiment with ads - less than stellar

A few days ago I posted about an ad network.

I gave it a try (as well as retrying others that I already had accounts with) and I have decided that they are just not worth the trouble. It might be useful for blogs that get millions of visitors but I found that I would get one click through for like every 10,000 or so (blows your mind huh?). Maybe I am doing it wrong, maybe its just not the mode people are in when they are surfing food porn, I dont know.

I prefer clean web pages like Nordjlus and Seven Spoons and am looking for an easy-peasy template to go there (maybe I need to go off of blogger but the thought of that gives me a migrane) but in the mean time, I am cleaning up things and going ad-free.

Has any of us here made an ad program work for them?


This post was written by Nika from Nika's Culinaria

[Photography] How to build a light box

There's an amateur (but impressive) photographer from here in St Louis who has written a tutorial on how to build a light box, specifying everything from materials to lightbulbs. It might be of interest to anyone wanting to kick up their photographs ...


This post was written by Alanna from A Veggie Venture.

HAY HAY ITS DONNA DAY AGAIN

Check out our latest Donna Hay Event for weekend 22nd January at this months host
http://glutton-island.blogspot.com/2006/01/hay-hay-its-donna-day-2-macaroons.html
This post was written by Barbara from www.winosandfoodies.typepad.com

2006 Bloggies

Don't forget to nominate your own and your favourite blogs in the 2006 Bloggies Awards.
There is a food blog section so you should all be good.
Additionally, many of you can enter yourselves for specific countries and continents, or the new blogs section.

And then - it just occurred to me - there is nothing to stop all of us submitting our very own Food Blog S'cool for the Best Community Weblog. This blog is more about Community than any other I have come across. So if you are filling in the form anyway, why not give Food Blog S'cool a shout at the same time?

PS - Please welcome our first batch of Food Blog S'cool Members for the 2006 term.
Hello to all the class of Oregano!

This post was written by Sam from Becks & Posh

Sugar High Friday Announcement Jan 2006

In case you missed it, get the LOW-down on Sugar friday which was announced last week.
Post day is Friday January 27th.




This post was written by Sam from Becks & Posh

Picture in Background problem-Os

Hey guys, Happy New Year food blogging friends.
I promise, I tried to find a previous post that could help me with my picture problems but nothing seemed to help me.
As you can see on my site, the picture in the background of my header has totally been mutilated by I don't know what. It's chopped into what appears to be 4 pieces from a perfectly beautiful skyline pic from my flickr account.
I don't know what to do.
If anyone could assist me it would be greatly appreciated!
Happy Friday to most, and Saturday to some:)

Mona of Mona's Apple.

[Syndication] Standard feed icon

Whilst playing around with Feedburner the other day I discovered that, according to them, there is a new standard icon for RSS and XML feeds that looks like this:



Further info on the standard logo can be found here.

Firefox uses this logo to signify websites that have a live feed that can be updated, but I haven't as yet seen it actually on any websites.

I'm interested to know whether any food bloggers have seen it or use it? I've tried to rationalise all the subscription buttons on my blog and replacing them with this makes sense, but only if people know what it is. If however no one has a clue what it represents, I might need to keep all my old buttons on the site, until this is widely recognised.

This post was written by Silverbrow from Silverbrow on Food

[Blog Ethics] Can I Ethically Take This Freebie?

.
I wrote a recipe recently including an ingredient I really love and would happily promote. Last week got an email from a sincerely nice person who imports a different version of that product that I have never had, with the offer of a free batch to try out. I checked out their site and the recipes had me totally salivating, and Im pretty sure wouldn't work with the version of the ingredient I usually buy.

I wrote back and said I couldn't possibly take a free sample, but if they let me know where I could find some locally, I would buy some and check it out. (Those recipes have my mind swimming. I have GOT to try some!) Only trouble...they aren't available to the public. The company only imports them for restaurants and some individuals who buy them directly.

So I looked around in some markets to see if anyone sells this version of this product, and to my knowledge its really not available anywhere.

I am intrigued by the offer, but do not think it is appropriate to tell my readers about something none of them can actually get. On the OTHER hand, there is something to be said for creating buzz, because buzz = demand.

Obviously, this person came to me for PR. While my site hardly garners enough interest to do them much good, I am a huge fan of helping out the little guy and want to find a way to resolve this so everyone wins. (As soon as I make sure they are environmentally friendly, not using child labor, gmo free, etc. Hey, I have to have some standards!)

And yes, I'm not mentioning it on purpose, since I don't want to be unethical or, whatever. But frankly, I really want the darned stuff! It sounds just too good to be true.

What would you do?

Smooches,
Rachael


This post was written with treacly love by Rachael of Fresh Approach Cooking

[Blogger] Coding Help - Any Chance One of You is Online

Trying to add a piece to my site, and it include two links in a drop down menu. For some reason, the links aren't working, even though, character-for-character, it's set up the same exact way as my recipe drop-down menu. Anyone online for 5 minutes of troubleshooting?

I hate to have it up if it's not working, but don't want to take it down and have to start over... argh!

This post was written by Sweetnicks from Sweetnicks

Those Sneaky Spammers

Spammers are getting ever sneakier with their attempts to build page rank for their prn sites. Here's a lovely trick I discovered today, thought I would give you all a heads up on this so you can recognize it on your own blog.

The following comment was left on a Toad in the Hole entry on my site:

I long did not do(make) " Toad in the hole " as has overlooked(forgotten) as to do(make) the first recipe. Now I know, already did(made) also to me it is pleasant... And in general I adore is tasty to prepare.

The question to the author is possible? Which flour(torment) it is necessary (you see from it the taste depends) and what else it is possible to use sausages?

The warning to me was that the email address given was a .ru account. I've never encountered a single legitimate email or comment from a .ru account. The URL given was www.eaglepasslite.com. The website looks perfectly boring, but legit. However, if you do a "view source" from the browser, what is revealed is a lot of hidden text, all links to prn sites.

The lesson? Check the websites of your commenters. If they look completely benign, they just may not be.

And, if you care about the Google page rank of your own site, be extra vigilant, as Google will penalize your site if it links to known spam pages.


This post was written by Elise from Simply Recipes

Lawyer Attacks Food Blogger, News at 11

via eGullet...

DC Chef Carol Greenwood, known for her fine cooking and inflexibility, has sic'd her lawyers on blogger DC Foodie, for taking and publishing pictures of his dinner. "You are hereby notified that should you show any of the said pictures on your website, an action will be brought against you immediately for specific damages, together with the court costs and attorneys fees in the said action."

DC Foodie's blog entry here.

eGullet discussion here.

This post was written by McAuliflower from Brownie Points Blog

(EVENT) ARF/5-A-Day Tuesdays

I started a new weekly food blogging event ... kick-off is tomorrow and I'm hoping y'all join in the fun. In the spirit of healthier eating in 2006 (particularly to offset things like Pepperoni Pie we had yesterday and Earthquake Cake for tomorrow!), I started ARF/5-A-Day Tuesdays. Food bloggers who make a recipe featuring an ARF (Antioxidant Rich Food) or fruits or veggies can send me their permalink via e-mail by 9:30 pm Tuesday to be included in a round-up. Weekly event. Hope to see you there!

This post was written by Sweetnicks from Sweetnicks

[Publishing] Changing domains?

Has anyone ever switched from blogger to their own domain? Is it easy to do? I am so scared to lose something in the transfer process. Would love to hear any experiences with this.

Michele from Chef Michele's Adventures

Hi everyone - just a reminder that the Paper Chef is going to start Friday - stop by before Thursday to nominate an ingredient or two...

This post was written by Owen from Tomatilla!

Is this for real?

Happy New Year Everyone.

Has anyone else gotten an email from this outfit: XB90
I got a kind of generic "this is not spam" email from them claiming they have syndicated my blog and looking from some kind of reply.

Anybody have any insight into this?

Thanks for your help.

Faith of Blog Appetit