One Year Blogiversary!

I am so excited to say that I have reached my one year blogiversary! I never could have guessed a year ago that instead of posting what I was supposedly going to learn daily in the kitchen with Will mostly for myself, that I would instead have a blog with some regular followers and a huge archive of recipes we've tried! I've been looking back and finishing up on some editing of blog posts from a time before I used to type the recipes, to make the blog as uniform as possible. I've made a few discoveries along the way:

1. We got healthier as the year went. Isn't that something to be proud of? Reviewing some of my earlier posts, I see things like Pinterest desserts that look deadly to me now (not that I wouldn't make them again).

2. Our kitchen gets smoky pretty easily. Is this just a problem for us? I don't remember the kitchen getting full of smoke from the stovetop or oven that much growing up, so maybe Will and I just make more dangerous recipes?

3. The photography has improved, although it is certainly not ideal. When we leave Tallahassee, one of the things I will be looking for in our next place is a kitchen with lots of natural light so I can get better pictures! That and more than one drawer...both places we've lived have only had one drawer! So frustrating. But really, I need better natural light in the kitchen and/or dining area.

4. I really enjoy writing about food. This has been probably one of the biggest discoveries this year. Originally, I thought this blog would just be a vehicle for myself to keep track of what I was learning, but the more I blog, the more I realize how much I enjoy documenting our daily experiences in the kitchen and what kind of dishes we are experimenting with. I hope to continue to improve my food writing, but for now, I'm pretty happy just giving quick blurbs and recipes!

There are also things that I hope this blog can begin to grow into and there are some things I want to accomplish, with help from my readers:

1. Better photography, to attract more viewers. But I'll work with what I've got for now, which happily I have a kick-ass Nikon DLSR, so many of my photos can be of a high quality, even if the backdrop or lighting is not perfect.

2. More commenting! I would love to know if people actually try any of these recipes and what kinds of adjustments they make or any suggestions they have! I would definitely like to have more dialogue going on posts, so that way it can be a growing opportunity for all of us cooks. Plus, I'm always open to guest posts, so if you have an awesome recipe you just made, shoot me a Facebook message with the recipe and your experience making it, plus a picture, and it will go on the blog!

3. I would also like to expand into making more of our own recipes instead of always making and sharing the culinary creativity of others. Don't get me wrong-I love testing the recipes from books and websites that we frequent, but I am hoping that my newly acquired confidence in the kitchen can lead to more positive experiments on our part to create our own archive of W&M dishes (W&M as in Will and Megan, not our alma mater).

4. A broader readership base, although I think that simply comes with time and exposure. For now, I'm happy sharing with family, friends, friends of friends, and Pinterest followers.

5. A slight layout change-instead of coming up with cutesy names for titles, I am going to begin to simply label each meal by the recipe names. I have found that I prefer that format when looking at food blogs and that it is much easier to find what you are looking for when the blog is structured that way. I even have a hard time finding certain recipes on my own blog sometimes, especially since my search bar doesn't always want to work 100%. I will also be adding the approximate servings for each dish, so that way you know if you'll have leftovers or not!