Meals and More blog

[Beverley]

They look fabulous! So do the lovely glass jars in the background

[Darkbyte]

Your blog is amazing!

Good work on the photography. Food photography drives me up the wall -trying to take the perfect photo before the meal gets cold is no mean feat, especially when you are hungry!!

I have found that having a mini/tabletop tripod helps. I have an older model sunpak that looks very much like this

Originally Posted by Eli

Might have to put together a cookbook NOT!

Never say never. Odds are you will think seriously about it :P I think there are some online cookbook sites that takes your blog posts and makes a book out of it.

[tryingtodecorate]

Thank you Beverley

I love cookbooks that are "normal" you know normal dishes by normal people that the average Mum can get her head around. I really need some new dinner menu's. I use Taste dot com and Chef's Toolbox alot in finding inspiration. Lol at the Lemon Meringue Pie, my 14yo DD made her first one yesterday, in between resting the pastry, straightening her hair and going out for dinner it took her 4 hours It's my DH's favourite but I have never made it for him.

I love love love the pink cake on the FB page. Definitely on my list for next years birthdays. I was going to attempt the swirls on Saturday's cake but ran out of time so only did one layer around.

[Eli]

Darkbyte the photography is driving me nuts and is an area I know I need to improve on. Waiting to go to Ikea in a couple of weeks to get some lighting, which will make a big difference and will try to do a course next year. I wanted to get a good SLR camera for my 50th soon but DH bought a very exy camcorder instead, as I think video is the way to go as far as SEO is concerned anyway.

Another area I have to improve on is the presentation, I forgot the strawberries that I had bought to garnish the roulade, oops! Hopefully it all falls in to place over time.

TTD I am the same, I am no gourmet cook and never will be (possibly as I don't eat half of it)...just normal everyday food. And the pink cake yes I am getting there, can't wait to attempt it hopefully before the month is out.

[Eli]

OMG Darkbyte just looked at the tripod and LOL we got a big one with the camcorder, didn't even think of using that!

[Cherylle]

Originally Posted by tryingtodecorate

Lol at the Lemon Meringue Pie, my 14yo DD made her first one yesterday, in between resting the pastry, straightening her hair and going out for dinner it took her 4 hours It's my DH's favourite but I have never made it for him.

Although 4 hours may be a bit OTT - I honestly think lemon meringue pie is one of those things that requires to much work for the end result. I love it, in fact I love all desserts, but I think I enjoy other desserts just as much, and if they take less time and effort to prepare (and clean up afterwards) all the better.

[Darkbyte]

Originally Posted by Eli

OMG Darkbyte just looked at the tripod and LOL we got a big one with the camcorder, didn't even think of using that!

Awesome! Versatility ++

Tripods make taking photos as you go so much easier, especially when you are showing how to put things together e.g. mini pavlovas (I gave up on this blog).

Originally Posted by Eli

Darkbyte the photography is driving me nuts and is an area I know I need to improve on. Waiting to go to Ikea in a couple of weeks to get some lighting, which will make a big difference and will try to do a course next year. I wanted to get a good SLR camera for my 50th soon but DH bought a very exy camcorder instead, as I think video is the way to go as far as SEO is concerned anyway.

Another area I have to improve on is the presentation, I forgot the strawberries that I had bought to garnish the roulade, oops! Hopefully it all falls in to place over time.

You have the basics down pat (according to my lunchtime research). The use of multiples, close ups, different angles. Between the lighting and the course, I bet you will be returning to your first posts and re-doing the photos!

Video is great, you can get a lot of traffic to your blog if you have the videos on youtube. Im not really up to speed on SEO, I think it is more luck than anything.

I dont know if it helps: I have a friend with a landscaping buisiness, and apparently he has recieved a lot of trafic from writing a few articles for those article websites ezine, etc.

[Cherylle]

Tonight for tea we had the delicious Chicken and Vegetable Biriani from Eli's meals and more blog.

Yum yum - all scoffed down by everyone.