Behind the Blogger Spotlight: Tina’s Cookings

This weeks Behind the Blogger Spotlight: Tina’s Cookings.

We love her recipes and she has been greatly supportive of us as we are growing in our first year.  Read the interview and we think you will love her as much as we do!

MEET TINA’S COOKINGS

TINA’S COOKINGS   FACE BOOK PAGE

TINA’S COOKINGS   TWITTER

TINA’S COOKINGS  PINTEREST

TINA’S COOKINGS  GOOGLE +

TINA’S COOKINGS   INSTAGRAM

ALL OF TINA’S COOKINGS ON YUMGOGGLE!

 

1. How long have you been blogging?

   • I started writing my blog nearly six years ago, in March 2010, with only a handful of recipes and whole lot of enthusiasm about sharing.

2. Why do you blog?

   • First and foremost, because I love food and food making. I love creating new delicious things and sharing recipes. Blogging combines that with photography, which is a great passion of mine. The fact that someone used your recipe to create a sweet treat for their party, or birthday, or even just a light snack for some dip and a cold beverage, really means a lot. I’m a firm believer that technique and recipes should be shared and always improved upon.

3. How did you come up with the name of your blog?

   • My husband helped me greatly with the name of the blog, because I wanted it to have a gastronomic sound to it, but at the same time, to have a cute and quirky name, and I couldn’t, for the life of me, think of a name. So he came to the rescue.

4. What do you wish that you had done early on with your blog that you didn’t understand until later?

   • I wish I read a bit more about food blogging itself, more about SEO, tagging and things of that nature. For the first few months, I dreaded tagging my recipes, it was like a chore for me, but later on I fully grasped the concept of the whole thing and how SEO works.
   • I also wish I invested more in the photography itself, a better camera, of course, and more photography books.

5. Do you have any advice for new bloggers?

   • Blog because you love what you do, and do not let anyone dictate your tempo of writing, photographing or posting. It’s your blog and your personal creative outlet, and everyone has a different speed of learning and adopting new things. Always be focused on the content you create, as the food you present to your readers is what makes you different from others, what makes you stand out. Find your audience and connect with them.

6. What is your favorite recipe on your blog and why?

   • Those would be my Sour cherry brownies. That is the first recipe I taught myself how to make. It was all the way back in 2009, and I heavily improvised from a conversation I heard in a library. The lady just said “just mix the cocoa and the butter, add eggs, flour, and you’re golden”, so I had to figure out that if you use too much cocoa powder, it will make the brownies dry. There is no such thing as too much chocolate, but there is such a thing as too much cocoa powder. Also, I love dark chocolate and cherries.

7. Name a few of your favorite blogs

   • I like blogs that have a homey and comfy vibe to them. From the time I only read food blogs, whilst trying to figure out the whole baking and cooking thing, I’ve loved blogs with straightforward recipes. Some of the blogs that are near and dear to my heart are Lavender and lovage, Belleau kitchen, It’s yummi, Fabfood4all, Pastry chef online, and Sprinkle bakes.

8. If you were a fruit or vegetable, which would it be and why?

   • I’d say a redcurrant, because they are so cute, round, festive and they remind me greatly of Christmas and all things wintery.

9. Favorite band or singer?

   • ABBA, I just love their songs, but Super trouper has a special place in my heart. When I was 12 and I bought my first CD ever, that was the first song I played.

10. Favorite movie?

    • The Bourne film series, because I’ve always loved mystery movies, especially combined with great action sequences. Matt Damon was marvelous in that role. And we are eagerly awaiting the new Bourne movie in 2016.

11. Anything else you would like to share about your blog – please feel free to write as much or as little as you want!

    • Everything you see on my blog is done by my husband and me. I cook, bake, and photograph, and he does everything related to the design, coding, header, and even my portrait photo. The blog is constantly changing and growing, as I learn more about cooking, baking, and blogging. I am currently working on my first e-book, which is planned for 2016, and I’m very excited for it.