smitten kitchen two point oh yeah!
I know what you’ve been thinking: this site’s great and all, but man, could it use some work. Why can I preview a comment before I post it? Why can’t I print this recipe? Why can’t I email this to my Aunt in Cincinnati who’s all “blob? What’s a blob?”
No, you weren’t thinking that? Well, I did, every day. But due to a combination of my FOP (Fear of Plugins) and my choice of WordPress as a platform, I had significant limitations. By the way, my FOP was very rightly founded, I’ll have you know. Friday night, when I was all, “Alex, you’re smart and techy. I’m, well, occasionally smart and fairly techy. Why can’t we just figure this damned thing out?” Even now, I want to go back in time and stop this conversation right there because five minutes later, I was hugging a pillow, rocking inconsolably in the corner, while Alex was sheet-white and sweating because we had somehow, with our combined embarrassingly vast knowledge of technology, managed to delete my entire goddamned site. Poof! What, you were looking for a recipe? Why not check out this “Index of/” instead?
That was fun. (Also, thank you Robert at Dreamhost. I love you, no I really do. Alex says it’s totally fine to flirt with the tech help.) And then we drank wine. And then a little more. And then, although I’d said we were “banned from touching the internet in any way for at least the rest of the weekend” after that scare, the wine, you know, convinced us once again that we could “figure this damned thing out.” Nobody can accuse us of not having wild and crazy Friday nights, eh?
So, a brief list of changes for those of you out there not snoring, as you rightfully should be by now:
- You can print posts! I have it set right now so it will not make you print pictures (because they’re huge, I know), just the text. The “print this” link is at the bottom of each post.
- You can email posts! This feature is so cool, only because, wow, developers are so smaht. I mean, you’d think I did all this fancy stuff, but nope, I just uploaded some file and now we’re all high-tech with the emailing. The “email this” link is at the bottom of each post.
- You can preview your comments before you leave them. As you type your comment in the comment box, a “live preview” will appear below your comment. Schwanky, eh? I find this one particularly fun, and have left assorted test comments on old posts that say “your mom.” But that doesn’t mean you should, okay?
- You can see the last five comments left in the sidebar, below the big old ad. I love this because I know that every day people leave comments on very old posts, and I tend to respond within the comments, and now, should you want to hear an update to the Oreo conversation, for example, you can. Or, you can just look at me like I’m smoking crack to think that would be a “fun” thing to do. That’s fine too.
- You can now bookmark individual posts to whatever hip and happening big-letters-on-a-vast-white-background social sharing site you kids are using these days. The “Bookmark” link appears at the end of each individual post. And look, it’s got Slashdot in there, too! I bet they’re really into crème patisserie recipes.
- A new “Best of” section in the sidebar lists the five most popular posts on this site according to some algorithm that gave me bad math flashbacks. (I kid. I loved math, but I have forgotten it all.) I’m hoping this might be the most helpful for new readers, as when you have nearly 200 entries in a 10-month period, it’s hard for most people to know where to dig in.
- There are newer, louder and more visible ads. What, mama needs some new tart pans! Yes, they make me cringe a little too, but the GoogleAds I had in their place previously were kinda eh, thus when my New Super Secret Superhero Ad Partners invited me into their fold a few weeks ago (and boy, I cannot wait to tell you that story), I couldn’t say no. I never say no to new tart pans.
Oh, hi. You’re still here, reading? You deserve a cookie! Or a free-form fruit tart, which I promise is coming tomorrow. Until then, in my most favorite comments section yet, people are sharing their very first cookbook, and what they made from it. Come chime in with yours over there, and over here, if you have some suggestions about what would better your SK2.0 experience, let us know. And, most urgently, have a fantastic weekend.
Oh I’m giggling, having been reminded of the time when I accidentally deleted my whole hard drive. Except in that case, I didn’t get it back. Love the new format! Kudos to all of your and Alex’s hard work!!! It is much appreciated by those who read your blog
I also love that melon picture… mmmm… whichever lens you are using these days is awesome!
Yay! Welcome to the world of WP plugins.
Wow, it’s all fancy! Now with more user-friendliness! Happy “blobbing.”
Oh, Wordpress is great once you get past that fear of plugins! So many things you can do! As you’ve no-doubt found out this weekend. I’m sorry you had to spend time in the corner rocking with your pillow – been there (and I was a programmer for a *living* before I became a crafty bloggin’ mom…) and it sucks.
I enjoy your wit and your photography, and one of these days when I’m not feeling so lazy at supper time, I’ll enjoy one of your recipes :-)
(oh, and that realtime preview? Wow! I may have to get me that plugin…)
Certainly understand the picture you paint
“hugging a pillow, rocking inconsolably in the corner, while Alex was sheet-white and sweating”
because I remember when I disconnected from my first itteration of my blog. It’s still out there although I can’t edit it.
All this looks fine and fancy now.
Congrats on the new site toys, and advance congrats on all the new tart pans coming your way, you definitely deserve some sort of incentive for all the hard work you put into the site.
By the way, i haven´t added my first cookbook to the previous post because i got my first cookbook when i was like 16. Before that, i just used my mom´s old handwritten recipes or had her measure the stuff while i pretended to be the cook in charge… oh, having a helper is the kitchen is the best and the closest I´ll ever get to starring in my own cooking show haha
I was noticing the changes the other day – especially the ads – I want my tarts for being subjected! I’m very grateful for the preview, especially for us grammatically challenged. Anywho, may I have my cookie now?
Hahaha. I just have this image of you and Alex, cracking your collective fingers and going – “Alright! Let’s do this thing! I’m ready, so ready! Alright, so I’m gonna move this over to- Ooooooh God!”
YAY Thank You!! I love the print feature (even though I…haven’t…used…it yet, but that’s beside the point) because BEFORE I had to go to all the trouble of copy and pasting and saving and yaaaay now it’s Easy with a capital E!
yay! congrats on all of the upgrades. like marce said, you do deserve rewards for all of your hard work. i’m especially excited about the print option since i like to try your recipes!thanks!
i LOVE your pics of the fruit! i think i’ll have to put my camera to work, it would be cool to print some for the kitchen!
Oh man, that “blob? What’s a blob?” thing had me giggling all over the place.
Ooh, fancy-schmancy! This preview thing is kind of spooky, although handy. Very Ghostwriter-esque. to me.
Augh! Even with the preview, I screw up the comment. Bah. User error.
Long-time reader and, as result, frequent “wow” sayer here (hmm, there seems to be a few us). I’ve never commented but now that I can preview first…well, well! Your writing/recipes/sense of humour AND the seriously superb photos: a total delight. Thank you.
And that pineapple and cantaloupe above! Fantastic!
It’s a shame to see that you have allowed the corporate world to get ya…the ads…yeah, they add to your tart pan collection, but seriously take away from the rest of, what used to be, a safe haven. It was nice while it lasted.
I’ve been dying to redesign my site, I’m thinking of paying someone to do it, since I’m way not techy enough (I have nightmares of your delete scenario) and I’m lacking in techy friends.
Your upgrade looks great, and the ads really aren’t bad at all, many sites are worse. Love the email feature!
I’ve been reading your blog for a while and love the writing and photos. Have recently tried the chilli (it’s cold in my part of the world so it was perfect) and my 2 oldest kids made the pirogis for dinner one night with only a little help (they’re 8 and 5). It was their first try at making dinner on their own. I’m just not sure what it does to ethnic cosmic food karma to have Aussie kids making central European food from an American recipe using wonton wrappers. All hail globalisation!
My response to Maryanne is that if she doesn’t like the ads then she should run something like NoScript (a free program). When I read her comment I thought “Ads. What ads? I’ve never seen an ad on this page.” I then looked at my control panel and saw that six scripts were being blocked. This way, if people want to see ads they can, you can get your tart pans, and the purists or time-challenged can live happy.
When I first read Maryanne’s comment about a “safe haven” I burst out laughing. And then I realized she was serious. Because the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a “haven” is a cooking website. I love the site, Deb, and I’m more than happy to support your tart pans.
Oh darlin, I’ve always thought your blog was unimprovable and dreamed one day of having a blog just as lovely…but now I’m afraid it could definitely be improved by getting rid of the frankly, terrifying americasupportsyou.mil advert. Can we have non militaristic tart pans instead?
You all are fantastic. Here I think I’m writing the most boring post ever and I come home to a slew of wonderful comments. Thanks for making me smile.
Maryanne– While I understand that many people have strong negative reactions to ads, and I respect that, I have actually had exactly this many ads (minus the one in the very bottom, which I am just testing out) in exactly the same spaces since my site launched less than a year ago. The only change is that they are now in color, sometimes moving, and I no longer give Google the vast majority of the earnings derived from them.
I have been reading the site for awhile now and really enjoy it. I think having ads is a great way to cover the costs of running a site. And to buy new tart pans. I don’t like ads so I use Firefox and Adblocker. You get tart pans, I get ad free web sites. It is a beautiful world. Except for people that don’t like ads and don’t know how to block them. But things cost. Besides, your commentary and recipes are worth having to ignore ads (if I saw them).
congrats on a new fabulous 2.0 site – it looks great and i never thought of comment preview, but it seems like a neat idea. As far as ads go. To those who don’t like them, I say, I understand you – our world, both real and digital is too full of solicitations and things. At the same time, to all those ad-haters, I’d like to bring one thing to the front – Deb is cooking, writing, photographing, editing (her post AND photos) and sharing all the recipes with everyone completely free of charge. Meanwhile, she has a day job and still manages to do just beautifully posting regularly. In all fairness, if mama wants new tart pans, then by all means – if it helps with producing more of the amazing recipes on this site!
Congratulations — small but very helpful changes (and the ads? a necessary evil) that have given me some good ideas for my own site. Wish I had the technical know-how to do it myself….
Radish said it all! Deb, keep up the good work, your site rocks!
Congratulations—as long as the pictures (food porn?) and recipes continue, this site will still be one of my favorites. [smile]
Tremendous! Love the ‘last five comments’ and the printing features. By the way, I found the lavender I emailed you about! *whew* In case anyone else is looking in the DC area: Mediterranean Bakery & Cafe (Alexandria). Thanks again for the pavlova recipe!
I think the new design is great! And plus, I’m really enjoying the “Vote Stick of Butter” ad! And if it leads to more tarts, I’m all for it.
Awesome, now I’m terrified of implementing any changes to Chew On That!
Joking aside, cool new features. :)
Wow, I feel like such a slacker! That’s a lot of work!
You’re making some wonderful changes to your site, making what was already a great site even better. Congratulations. And as for the ads, I see no reason at all why you shouldn’t get as many new baking pans as you’d like!
OOOooh! I love HTML-y/CSS-y/Plug-in-y meta goodness! Yay, you!
Delurking to say thanks for the new features — especially the email and print options. I enjoy your blog and your taste. You inspire me to cook more yummy things — and new ones too. Thanks!
Awesome! I love this preview thingy and the email thingy and the print thingy and the new posts thingy… very cool.
I seriously heart you! :D
You sound like a combination of “Black Books” and Dilbert! :D Laughing and commiserating and applauding hugely!
BZ
a question about the most recent comments: are we supposed to be able to click on a comment to take us to that post? If so, it’s not working for me. It’s hard to figure out which post is being commented on, in some cases, if we wanted to go back and review the post. some other blogs have this option. Just wondering if something wasn’t working quite right yet.
to get your tart pans (or anything else you’re drooling for), i believe there’s a wp plugin for paypal donations or a link to your amazon.com wishlist might be good :)
As a web developer, this page makes my insides giggle :) I <3 this site !!
What is the name of the theme you used? Was it a free theme, or something that you had custom-made?
The theme was initially adapted from one named Orchids, but heavily tweaked by me.
The site is deliciously gorgeous. I love your enthusiasm for cooking and food, I feel like I’ve found a kindred spirit!
As for plugins, they can be intimidating, but they’re as easy to get hooked on as chocolate (okay, maybe not that easy…).