FAQ
General Recipe/Cooking Questions:
Can I substitute various ingredients in your recipes?
Please do! That’s the fun of cooking and baking. But I may not be able to respond back to every inquiry as to whether such-and-such will work for a substitution. As a general rule, I try to update the recipe (in the notes section below the recipe title) if I’ve substituted any of the ingredients or varied the recipe in any way so check there first and almost always, the comment thread is a great source of information as to what has worked for other people. Otherwise, go for it and be sure to report back with results!
My bread/rolls/yeast recipe isn’t turning out! Help! What do I do?
While I’m far from a yeast expert, I love to make bread and rolls and here is a great tutorial on working with yeast. And another step-by-step for whole wheat bread. Both of these will help with the majority of questions (especially with subbing in active dry yeast for instant yeast, etc.). Also, I’ve responded to many questions in the comments of all of the yeast bread and roll recipes so you may find useful information there, too.
What should I make for x,y,z event?
The Recipe Index is a great resource for planning! I have several posts dedicated to cooking for large groups:
- How to cook for Girl’s Camp and Other Large Groups
- Tips for Feeding Large Crowds
- Three Menus for Feeding Large Groups
Favorite Kitchen Equipment:
What are the kitchen appliances and tools you can’t live without?
Here is a comprehensive list of my go-to kitchen favorites! In addition, in the recipe section of each post, I list the equipment I use for that particular recipe.
Food Blogging Questions:
How can I sign up for your newsletter?
To get an email when a new recipe goes live, sign up here. Once you receive the first email, you can follow the links at the bottom to update your preferences so you receive just the emails you want to.
Where can I purchase your cookbook?
Thank you for your interest in my cookbook! It is available here.
Can I republish your recipes and/or photos?
Please do not republish my recipes and photos without express written permission from me; you can email me at contact@melskitchencafe.com with your request. Thank you!
What kind of camera/lenses do you use?
Since 2015, I’ve used a Nikon D90 (before that I had a Nikon D90 and before that a used a Sony Cybershot point-and-shoot). I almost always shoot with my 24-70mm lens (i.e. my 6th baby). I am not a professional photographer. I take hundreds of pictures for each recipe I post. But I have learned a lot, and for me, I’ve found that natural light vs studio lighting works best.
Can I advertise on your site?
I’m not accepting advertisers at this time.
Can I send you a great, free product and will you post about it on your blog?
No. My preference is to talk the guts out of things I’ve loved and bought for myself – it doesn’t sit well with me to tell other people to pay for a product that I didn’t buy myself. I try really hard to keep this space authentic and unsponsored.
Can I guest post on your site?
Thank you, but no! Since 2007, I’ve been the sole writer/blogger making this food blog tick, and it is my plan to keep it that way.
Personal:
How do you find the time to cook/bake so often? Are your children neglected?
If you consider a child with brownie batter slathered on his/her face neglected, then yes, they are. I do the majority of my cooking with my kids. They love to help (which is a blessing and a curse, as you can imagine) and because I’m naturally cooking meals for my family anyway, food blogging is a perfect hobby-turned-job for me. Of course, as other food blogger’s with children can attest, my kids will probably have issues later in life for all the minutes they had to stare at the food longingly while I take a million pictures before letting them dig in.
Where do you live?
I live in Southwest Idaho after having spent many years with our little family in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Utah. Brian and I both have roots scattered everywhere from Texas to Utah to Oregon to Montana.