A Resolution

       I realized something since the last post: I don't want to have an blog with original ideas! I want to do whatever I do in real life, take pretty pictures of it to the best of my ability, and tell my family and friends how it turned out!
      This takes a lot of pressure off me, and also helps free up my posting block.

      I actually DID make some foodz that I could have posted the recipe for, but I didn't take pictures because my battery was dead. Another time.

Instead, I'll show the pictures from my trip to Spokane with my mama:

    
This weekend CJ turned 24. I took him to Salty's and bought him a magnificent dinner with the gift card we got from our Visa points. I told the waiter to bring him balloons and cake while I "went to the bathroom". He he.

I love this adorable guy so much!

Coconut flakes are tasty and pretty. Wish I knew about 20 years earlier!

Here is the german chocolate cake I baked him. It was very tasty!

YAY

I found a photo (that I actually took myself) that isn't too large of a file for Blogger to accept!!!!

I feel less cheap now!! Woo!

I also have a few new recipes to try and put up soon, that are MINE. hehe.

This is progress!

A Conflict

       I haven't really posted much of my cooking projects lately, and for a particular reason that I think I need to talk about.

       All my recipes lately have come from other people's food blogs. I feel very cheap trying their recipes, taking my own photos, and reposting! And I don't know how to get over this. Part of me wants to quit looking at other people's blogs, spend a little more time being creative and concocting my own recipes, and then post them guilt free on my own.

       The other part of me feels that if I stop looking at other people's ideas I'll stagnate. I have cooker's block. I can't think of anything tasty lately until I search for something!

      To make things worse, I am very dissatisfied with the appearance of my blog right now. Blogger won't allow me to upload any pictures for my background over 300K, which is a pretty much unreasonable limit. Either I pick one of their stock photos (which also makes me feel cheap) or I tile a small photo, which does not make me happy. Add to this that most of my photos are difficult to access due to a complete wipe of my laptop last week, and you get a pretty lame blog.

       That was a lot of complaining and not a lot of solutions.

       On a lighter note, I do in fact have a few original recipes, and am working to compile a cookbook! Not to sell, but to create as sort of a family heirloom. Bookemon and Blurb both have applications to create cookbooks and have them printed up for around 50 bucks. Maybe the fact that I only have 5 recipes so far will encourage me to stop stealing other peoples recipes and work harder to create me own. Wish me luck!

P.S. If anyone has solutions to my problem, please advise. Also, if you find better applications for creating cookbooks, please share!

My Computer Sadness

 My laptop that I got in June is dead. Its still under warranty, so I sent it off to get fixed, but until then I'm not very happy. A lot of my data was lost, and I am stuck using the computers at work, or this ancient thing on the floor in my spare room. I got it up and running and miraculously I got internet on it and I can do some basic functions. CJ was impressed with me. But, this is part of the reason my blog had a Christmas background and theme until just now, and the reason the current background and theme is rather crappy. At least I didn't give in and use a pre-made Blogger background!

For Christmas I got a food processor and a magazine full of recipes. Hopefully soon I'll have time to cook some of my own recipes and take pictures and give a good update.

Until then, good luck enduring these cold non-holiday months!