My Blog Turns 15!
Fifteen years ago, when I was young and full of hope, I started a recipe blog.
It was called mykitchencafe.blogspot.com
If you recognize the blogspot address or either one of these original logos below, it means you’ve been around a long time…and…you probably deserve an award.
A few years after I started My Kitchen Cafe, I swapped out the blogspot address for a real, live dot com and it has been Mel’s Kitchen Cafe ever since (with no shortage of logo changes until I finally hired a professional, ha).
It would be impossible to describe all the changes that have occurred over the last 15 years. Both personally and in the internet/blogging landscape.
When I first started my blog, life looked a bit like this:
Whereas now, “life” has increased in the number of humans…and in wrinkles. 😉
Some days, it’s hard to wrap my brain around the fact that I’ve been sharing recipes in this space for 15 years. THAT’S A LONG TIME!
My kids don’t really remember life before “mom had a blog.” Sometimes, neither do I!
Funny story: when my kids were little, little, I’d spend our days doing kid/mom things and making a concerted effort not to be on the computer. However, the minute my kids went to bed, I would rush to my computer and do all the blogging “stuff” on my to-do list. Inevitably, as kids do, mine would wander out of bed and into the office to find me and ask for a drink or want to tell me a random story to delay bedtime or just sit on my lap for a minute (you know, because I HADN’T JUST SPENT THE WHOLE ENTIRE DAY WITH THEM). 😉 During this time, a teacher at church told me that one of my kids had announced to his class: “my mom likes to play games on her computer every night after we go to bed.” I didn’t know whether to laugh or feel mortified (both!). Turns out, all that time, my kids thought I was hiding in the office to play games when they went to bed! We had a quick family discussion about how mom goes into her office at bedtime to work on her food blog…not to play solitaire until the wee hours of the morning. 😂 But honestly, I think they still told their friends and teachers and friends’ parents for years that I was a late-night internet gamer.
Photo Growth
My kids’ shoe sizes and the number of animals we have acquired over the years aren’t the only things that have changed either. HAVE YOU TAKEN A DIVE INTO THE ARCHIVES TO SEE SOME OF MY OLD PHOTOS?
I mean, my goodness. Talk about before and after growth. 🤣
Things Change but My Motives Haven’t
I could write an entire blog post about how, outside of family life, things in the blogging world have changed so drastically over the last 15 years.
Over the years, the online world of food blogging has become less simple and more strategic.
Less relatable and more robotic.
Less carefree and more calculated.
It’s not all bad. It’s just different.
I started my blog as a way to share recipes with my mom and sisters who didn’t live near me. I never had any intentions of becoming a “full-time” blogger.
In fact, I was completely freaked out when a few months after I started putting recipes up on my blog I received a comment from a stranger saying they had made a recipe and liked it. I thought for sure that person was an internet stalker coming after my children.
Turns out, that first blog reader was a perfectly nice, normal human being who still follows my blog after all these years (hi, Kim!). Millions of readers have followed!
Years ago, I did a blog post called “This is Why I Blog”, and I could honestly repost that word for word because I still adhere to the same philosophies I always have about blogging. If you haven’t read that post, please do. It might give you some insight into why I am the way I am and why I blog the way I blog.
While blogging has changed infinitely over the years, my motives have not. Just like when I started putting recipes up on the internet late in 2007, my reasons I still do so are the same: to share my favorite, tried-and-true recipes with the world.
My blog started out as a hobby.
Now it is equal parts hobby and full-time job!
I never would have thought 15 years ago that my readership of about five people would grow into millions! What a tremendous, awesome opportunity and blessing it has been for me.
Some Fun Stats
For those who like geeky number-type stats, I thought it would be fun to share a few details/facts/numbers that help give a big picture look at Mel’s Kitchen Cafe!
At the Beginning (from about 2007-2010):
- Revenue/Income: $0
- Blog Visits: 50-1,000 per month
- Additional Employees: 0
- My Time: 10-20 hours/week
The Middle Years (2014-ish):
- Revenue/Income: part-time
- Blog Visits: 750,000-1,000,000/month
- Additional Employees: 1 part-time virtual assistant (5-10 hours/week)
- My Time: 30-40 hours/week
Current Years (2022):
- Revenue/Income: full-time
- Blog Visits: 3,000,000-4,000,000/month
- Additional Employees: 1 part-time virtual assistant (10-20 hours/week) plus a few contracted employees to help with videos/projects
- My Time: 20-45 hours/week
A Note About Income and Revenue
Things can get kind of weird when people talk about money (and heaven knows, I don’t want things to get weird between us!), but lots of people have been curious over the years if my blog makes money.
It does! But it didn’t always.
For the first several years, I made approximately zero dollars.
Around 2010, I started putting display ads on my website (first just on my own with Google Adsense and then with a long since outdated company, Foodbuzz through Federated Media). I remember literally falling over with excitement when I got a check one particular month for $125. I couldn’t believe I was getting paid that much to talk about recipes I loved!
I later changed ad networks to AdThrive and then switched to Mediavine in 2016 and have been with them ever since.
A VERY simplistic description of how ad networks, like Mediavine, operate is that they work directly with ad exchanges and companies to service and display all the ads you see on my website (and they work on the ad technology and gaining new ad customers so I don’t have to!).
I am paid based on a revenue split – meaning, I don’t pay Mediavine directly for their work servicing ads, rather, Mediavine and I split the revenue that comes from the ads on my site.
I can choose which ads I want displayed. Although that system isn’t always perfect, which is why you may occasionally see a questionable ad, like an alcohol ad, even though I have alcohol ads disabled in my ad settings. Please feel free to always report those ads, by the way! You can do that by clicking on the Mediavine logo in the lower right hand side of the ad and selecting “report ad” (see screenshot below).
Over the years as I’ve worked hard and traffic has increased and my ad structure has changed, my blog has grown to provide a full-time income for me and my family.
My income comes from: the ads you see on the blog, Amazon affiliate links (and L’Chef affiliate links when Bosch mixers are on sale). I know ads can be annoying – and because of that, I only run about half of the ads available to me through my ad network – but those ads serve a purpose to help pay the costs of running and hosting a website, pay my employee and contractors, and compensate me for my work on the blog.
My Virtual Assistant(s)
I’m blessed in that my sister, Emily, is my virtual assistant! She started working with me in 2013 and she is a lifesaver. She schedules posts to Facebook, answers emails, does tons of behind the scenes work updating recipes and categories on the blog, and more.
Her help allows me to focus more on recipe testing, taking all the photos, writing the posts, answering comments, interacting on Instagram, occasionally taking a nap, and maintaining the authentic voice here on the blog.
And since I’m deep in the middle of this acceptance speech (?? kind of starting to sound like one! haha), I would be remiss if I didn’t give a huge shoutout to my faithful partner and best friend. He’s the unpaid assistant around here.
Brian has been my biggest champion since the beginning. And as the resident taste tester (all those pictures on my blog with one bite taken out?? Yeah, thank Brian for that effort), he offers the support, compassion, brain gasoline, and endlessly patient listening ears that keep me and this blog putting one foot in front of the other.
The Numbers Game + Blog Visitors
2020 was a huge year for internet traffic. Because of the pandemic shutdowns and increase of at-home cooking, my visits per month were at a record high that year – nearly 10 million per month! But things have gradually slowed down and my traffic is actually less than it was a few years ago.
The thing is, I rarely check my stats. I can’t really tell you month-to-month how many visitors I’m getting or if it is waxing or waning.
The numbers game can be debilitating (both in traffic and with social media), and I’ve just chosen not to play it so that I stay better focused on my overall intentions. I monitor and check things out now and then, but I don’t dwell on it.
However, I did do a fun little check for this post to see where my visitors are checking in from!
United States: 81.38%, Canada: 8.35%, United Kingdom: 2.53%, Australia: 1.35%, South Africa: .56%, New Zealand: .36%, Philippines: .35%, India: .33%, Germany: .29%
The Right Way to Blog…Or Not
Many bloggers in this food space are intensely savvy. They do keyword research and create their recipe posts strictly around what Google wants (with the goal to get high up in search results). They network with companies (and each other) and grow virtual empires. They publish books and videos and create products.
It’s amazing to watch and see. I love it!
My strategy, which should come as no surprise, is more of the homebody, naturalistic, girl-next-door approach. Meaning: I don’t network all that much, I don’t do keyword research, I don’t do sponsored posts.
I make a recipe. I squeal in delight. I force my family to taste it and review it. I make it again. And likely, again. And then I post it for you, because if I don’t, I want be able to sleep at night.
That’s not to say I don’t work hard at this gig. I do! Blogging is a ton of work (certainly more than just taking a pretty picture of food and slapping it up online!).
I set priorities for certain projects (like email growth, etc), and I’ve always put high emphasis on staying up to date with SEO principles and technology updates, but at the end of the day, I’m still an old school blogger who just wants a space to share my favorite recipes with the world.
Which means sometimes I turn a blind eye to “best practices” and do my own thing. I don’t do this to be ignorant – it’s really just a survival skill to preserve my mental health and ensure I continue to keep blogging.
For me, this space, is about so much more than numbers and stats and money and notoriety. It’s truly about human connection and sharing good things with you.
A Day in the Life
My schedule has shifted and changed over the years. Now that all of my kids are in school full-time (and one has graduated high school), I try to get all my blogging work (particularly) computer work done during the day instead of staying up super late to tackle my to-do list.
I don’t set specific “work hours” but it naturally ends up that about two days a week are spent on the computer side of blogging. Writing and publishing blog posts, answering comments and emails, coordinating projects with my sister-VA, and working on other techy-stuff.
Once I get my kids off to school, I feed farm animals, do scripture study, write in my journal, exercise, and (sometimes) shower, before diving in to blog work from about 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. with laundry and other household/farm chores scattered in there.
Additionally, I end up spending another day or two a week bustling around the kitchen to test and photograph recipes (I use natural light, so right now during the winter, I have to get that done before 4 p.m.).
I usually make about 5-6 new recipes a week. Sometimes just for fun. Sometimes to test them (again) and/or take photos. I know, I need to get a life and/or diverse hobbies, but I can’t help it! I love food and making new recipes.
My kids always have Fridays off school, so I try to fit the blogging work in Monday through Thursday; however, inevitably there’s an evening or two that it spills over and I work in my office from 8 – 11-ish p.m.
I don’t shy away from saying I work from home or that I have a full-time job. But I do consider it a serious blessing that my job is this blog and that even though it requires hours and effort, I’m able to set my own hours and schedule.
And doing so allows me the flexibility to volunteer in my daughter’s class, do church and community service (right now I’m helping at a refugee organization, and it is life-alteringly rewarding), run errands when I need to, take a break from everything and help one of my kids or work on a house project, or just aimlessly waste time on the internet searching for watermelon carving knives.
To Sum it All Up
While my focus is mostly on really good recipes, over the years, I’ve also shared gift guides and Friday Thoughts (used to be Snapshot Saturdays!) and glimpses of real life.
At the end of the day, I’m a very average, real human who has a lot of highs and a lot of lows. And I don’t do a great job of pretending like those things don’t exist. Normalize real life. That’s my motto. 🙂
I have no idea how long I’ll continue to blog. If asked, some days my answer would be “forever” and other days the answer is more like “um, ask me tomorrow – I may have pulled the plug on the blog by then.”
The truth is, even with my laid back style, it’s hard work. Something is always going on (or breaking!) behind the scenes and there is a lot of management that blogging requires besides the delicious pictures of food and brand, new recipes.
I get tired and burned out.
But the reason I always, always end up sitting at my computer at midnight NOT playing solitaire 😉 is because of you guys.
Seriously.
It’s Because of You
If it weren’t for the real human connections I’ve made with you over the years, for the comments you leave and the stories and experiences you share, for the notes that tell me how a recipe has impacted your family or changed someone’s life for the better, for the hilarious anecdotes and the heartbreaking life experiences…if it weren’t for that, I’d be long gone.
I tell my family all the time that it’s ok I never leave my house because I have millions of friends online.
And, ok, I know that sounds completely weird, and if my kids said that back to me, I’d definitely get them professional help.
But.
It’s also true. Thank you for sticking around. For being my virtual friends. For making this a space that I want to come back to day after day.
Love your guts. 😘
Also, a special shoutout thank you to all of you who leave comments/ratings/reviews on recipes after you’ve made them. This makes such a huge difference! For me, and for those who scroll through comments to get ideas/variations/suggestions when they are planning to make the recipe. Thank you for taking the time to leave comments and reviews and ratings!!
What’s to Come
Well, first of all, count on the best of the best new recipes to continue popping up here! I have some exciting new recipes coming your way. My goal is to get you 4-5 well-tested, fantastic recipes each month in 2023.
Additionally, I’m planning:
- lots of updates to many of the recipes that have been on here for over a decade (not changing the recipe, per se, just updating photos and recipe notes, etc).
- some additional content projects that will likely involve hiring another assistant to help with marketing and development
- site updates and changes to make the website sleek, savvy, and even more SEO-friendly
- continuing with Friday Thoughts posts now and then
- and a few other things swirling around in my brain
I get asked all the time if I’m planning to do a cookbook. I have a cookbook started on my computer – some content, lots of ideas, etc. But every time I get close to signing a publishing contract or going the self-publishing (or hybrid) route, I can’t ultimately commit. It feels stressful and wrong. I think my biggest hangup is that my first priority is to continue to publish a wide range of amazing content on my blog, and I don’t think I can manage a cookbook and the blog. Additionally, I’m not sure I really have anything to offer the cookbook world that hasn’t already been done. So. We’ll see! Never say never!
Anything you are dying to see on Mel’s Kitchen Cafe? Let me know below in the comments! I love getting suggestions from you!
The End, Finally
And herein lies another extensive novel-like post about nothing all that important, which will surely garner some hate mail from those that “just want the freaking recipe already so stop blabbering,” but hey, 15 years in, it’s hard to change these long-winded stripes.
OK, BYYEEEE. 😘 Here’s to the next 15 years!
If you have any other questions about blogging or Mel’s Kitchen Cafe or just want to tell me about YOURSELF (yes! that’s a good plan!), leave me a comment below!
In case you didn’t clearly hear me earlier in the post: I AM SO GRATEFUL FOR YOU!
The Comments
Thank you for all of your heartfelt comments. They’ve made me laugh and cry. I’m just so grateful for each of you. For the good humans you are. The efforts you make in your own lives. The affirmations you’ve allowed me to feel that this blog is “more than just a blog.” I’m just very grateful to be here with all of you.
Thank you for all of your suggestions, as well! I keep a running list of things you would like to see on the blog, and I’ve taken note of all of them!
To answer a few questions coming through in the comments:
- Where do you get ideas for new recipes? I have so many recipe ideas swirling around in my head, it’s a miracle I ever get to sleep! I’m so anxious to share all of them with you! I find inspiration from recipes you share with me (I LOVE GETTING NEW RECIPES FROM YOU SO MUCH – thanks for sending them to me!). I also get inspiration from a few recipe magazines and social media. But a lot of my recipe inspiration just comes from me thinking about food nonstop and figuring out recipe mashups I want to make.
- How many times do you make a new recipe before posting it? At least twice, but for baking recipes, usually an average of 3-4 times (with some recipes taking a few more testing sessions).
- How many of your recipes are original or modified from other sources? There are a lot of both! Although I would submit that there’s probably no such thing as a truly original recipe anymore since there are so many recipes “out there” already. I always cite a recipe source if I’ve used a recipe as inspiration or modified it. But there are some recipes I’ve come up with on my own from all those ideas swirling around my head (and many other recipes from my childhood)!
- How adventurous are your kids when it comes to eating? My kids eat everything I make. They don’t always love, love certain ingredients (I have a tomato hater and a mushroom hater and a bean hater; they power through it), but they’ll eat it. I have two kids that love to try new things and will eat anything. They’re the ones at restaurants that order something unusual and fun and will dig into sushi with me and Brian. The other three go straight for the mac and cheese and chicken nuggets. 🙂
Your recipes are the most dependable of any food blog I’ve followed. Been coming for longer than I can remember. I appreciate the reliability in flavor and knowing that anything I make from your site is going to TURN OUT.
I also like your blog precisely because you haven’t sold out yet. I appreciate the effort it takes to keep doing it all!
I tell everyone about your blog. I don’t know if you remember me, but I used to be a Robertson and lived in Green Bay. I remember going to your house one time and loving your food. I didn’t know that I would use your blog almost everyday of my life as an adult! I search your blog weekly for recipes and have tried (and loved) so many of them. If anyone is ever in a dinner funk, I always tell them to look at your blog because I have loved everything I’ve tried. Thank you so much for you hard work on it! You change so many lives by providing easy, family friendly meals!
Congratulations, Mel. It sounds as though you have come a long way and you can be very proud of yourself. In pursuing your passion, you have helped many people improve their cooking skills. I wish to thank you for that. I wish you many more years of doing what you love. A loyal Canadian fan.
Congratulations Mel! I found your site about 9 years ago while trying to finds foods that my two picky toddlers would eat. And I would estimate that about 70% of the food we have made in those 9 years have been your recipes. My whole family is so grateful for you and your delicious food!! I will be forever grateful.
Ditto, ditto, ditto. Your blog is the only blog I’ve ever followed faithfully, ever since I discovered and made for my children those unique and awesome homemade chocolate marshmallow Easter eggs (remember those?!) Also, I couldn’t have gotten through nursing school without you, back in 2014-16. You cook the way my family likes to eat, whether it’s dinner/salad/soup/appetizers/bread/dessert or just plain ol’ granola. Whenever I make something for my church or friends, they often ask, “Is it Mel’s?”
You may be interested to know the only recipes I’ve ever had to adapt are, of all things, the cookies! I live in Florida, where using two sticks of butter is waaaay too much butter for cookies down here in these parts! They become pancakes in the humidity….Otherwise, way to go! Congratulations! Looking forward to the next 15 years with you! Thank you for being so generous with your gift for cooking and baking!
Congrats Mel! I love your blog, I always know your recipes are going to be good and usually great! I’m in love with your cinnamon granola and pecan bars are my husband’s new gluten free favorite! Keep creating in your kitchen and I’ll keep reading ❤️
I remember the blogspot website. Ha! Your recipes have always been some of my favorites forever and ever. Thanks for being you and staying true to what works for you!
xo, Becky
I’ve been here since the beginning Mel and you’re still my favorite! Love your recipes and your realness! Thanks for sharing! ❤️
Wow! Great job, Mel! 15 years!
I always enjoy reading your posts and appreciate your humor, your down-to-earth approach and your genuine sincerity. Though we’ve never met, I consider you a friend and mentor. Your blog has been my go-to recipe site for probably a dozen years. Crazy! I have enjoyed glimpses of your growing family while my own young family has grown as well (six kids ranging from 15 to four). You are a household name, haha! And yes, I agree with others, I always think I should get organized and print my favorites from your site in case they disappear or I can’t access the Internet. Thank you for helping me become confident in the kitchen. I have directed so many people to your site over the years. We eat more vegan/vegetarian style these days, but I still regularly check your blog and head here first when I want to make desserts, meat, or any variety of bread beyond our standard recipe. Thank you for everything! I am better (and we eat yummier food!) because of you!
-Sarah
Mel, I love your blog and recipes SO much!!! One thought—I would totally buy a cookbook that is just a printout of all the recipes currently on your blog. There is stuff I am making so much that I really just need a printout of it to save my poor phone screen.
I saw your email this morning but waited to read until this afternoon when I knew I had time to read and enjoy with no interruptions! (Love these glimpses of real life!) Congrats on 15 years! Since you’ve started I’ve followed along but my kiddos were off to college and it was just my husband and me. I’ve really appreciated notes on making ahead, freezing, and side dish recommendations as well as the low amount of advertising! (That one is huge) trying to read other blogs has become so annoying with the advertising that I just stop visiting those sites. Anyways, I also love the other readers of your blog who comment after making…so helpful! I organize your recipes by meals and clip all the recipes together. For example, last week we had company and I made your coleslaw, pulled bbq pork for sandwiches, and instant pot Mac and cheese…along with some peanut butter cookies. Those things just belong together in my mind so I always keep the recipes together. I’m curious if in the future you could share favorite meals with recipes that you always make together and if you organize recipes in anyone particular way. Thanks for all of your hard work…I really enjoy visiting your blog!
And I am so grateful for you! I squeal (quietly) when you have a new post – your style of writing just warms my heart and inspires gratitude, happiness, empathy, compassion and sometimes, sadness (life is like that). Here’s to another 15 years – raise a glass of home made root beer to celebrate!
Patricia
Loved this post! Love your blog, the recipes and the stories! Keep being you!
You are the best of the best! I love your honesty and amazing sense of humor. And your food. All the things keep me coming back. Can’t wait to see what you bring to the table in 2023. I know it will be yummy.
Thank you, Mel! My sisters, mom, and I all love your blog. Almost every time one of us brings a new recipe to a family event, we say “I got it from Mel.” And then we joke that we’re all great friends with you, or at least we would be, if we lived nearby. You have a lot of fans!
You are the best. I love how relatable and real you are. My family loves your recipes. We are GRATEFUL FOR YOU!!!!!
I don’t know if I have ever posted a comment here, but this post seems like one I should reply to!! i don’t know exactly how long ago I found your blog but I remember when you had your daughter so it has been a while. I can’t tell you how many of your recipes I have made over the years I have followed you or how many times I have recommended your site to other people!! Whenever I need a recipe for something (or a good new game – we love Double Ditto) your site is always the first one I check and I am never disappointed with the results!! So, I hope you keep posting recipes forever!!! I feel like I should have thanked you before now, but THANK YOU for sharing your amazing recipes and everything else you write about – I love all of it!!
Mel! We love you in these parts! You are seriously practically family. All my kids and close friend know who you are. If they ask me for a recipe I usually respond “Oh – that’s Mel’s!” And they know how to access it! Thank you for sharing these recipes, but for also making us feel apart of your world and sharing your light with the world! It’s a better place because of you!
Request: We want more pictures of your pigs! I couldn’t stop laughing at the one where they were looking through your window!
And more plant based recipes please!!
Love ya!
Thank you for all of the fabulous, well-tested recipes through the years! I find myself regularly printing them out and sticking them in my “go-to” binder. (Yes, I know it is old school, but I hate scrolling when I’m cooking.)
I am a tinkerer of recipes and spice profiles in general, because I’m (1) picky) and (2) like simple flavors that aren’t all mucked up. But I find I seldom/never have to tinker with yours because they are consistently balanced and good! They are truely a breath of fresh air in the trendy culinary world of over-complication! The How To instructions are also very clear and well documented. Thank you for the extra effort on that part of the blog. I cook for myself and my husband, but basically, I’m alone in the kitchen, so I love your conversational style. It makes me feel a little less alone, and helps guarentee better results on the first try without having to guess so much.
This Thanksgiving, I had someone ask if I had a good stuffing recipe, and once again, I found myself saying, “Not anything I want to share specifically, but go to MelsKitchenCafe.com and you will not be disappointed by anything you chose to make!”
Thank you for 15 years of effort and grace. You are deeply appreciated and I feel blessed to have shared your journey.
Mel! I love you and your blog so much! It actually feels weird that you don’t know who I am. You are that much a part of my life. So grateful for your recipes, they truly are the best. So grateful for your authenticity and example. You are a treasure! Thank you!
Thank you so much for all your amazing recipes!! I first made your Hawaiian Haystacks about 12 years ago… so I’ve been cooking from your website for almost 80% of your blogging time!! Once I had my second baby, i realized my hobby had to be something i had to do anyways, so making delicious food was it. And you help me succeed every time. Every week I make my recipe dinner plan for grocery shopping. I open a group of tabs with all the recipes I’ll make, and 99% of the time, there are 7 dinner recipes from you! My kids eat everything you post and it’s usually fast and healthy! So grateful for you!! Seriously. Dinner time is sacred time at my house and it wouldn’t be so easy or yummy without you!!❤️❤️❤️
I’ve been following your blog for about the last 11 years and I was sold from the beginning. I get when you say you have friends on your blog, because you do feel like a friend I haven’t ever met in person. I love your approach and your recipes speak for themselves. AMAZING! Thank you for the work you do that truly has blessed my life and my family that I cook for and other people that I give food to. You do make me feel like a rockstar in the kitchen. Thank you, Mel!
Ok, so I’m not the person yelling to get the recipe. I’m just the opposite. The best reason to follow a blog is to know the person and in this case you. I haven’t been around since 2007 as I was still working. When I retired in 2011 I set about looking for interesting blogs to follow. Yours was one. Each post I learn and enjoy so much. So keep going, I’ll be here. Thanks for the behind the scene looks at creating and maintaining a blog.
So very grateful I found your blog. I’m thinking about 10-12 years ago. I talk about you to my friend like we are friends. I am inspired by your love of family and friends. And I giggle at your sense of humor. Thanks for all you do to nourish me, my family, and my friends. (Made the pumpkin Bundt cake with vanilla cream sauce for book club tonight. And I can’t wait for them to show up so I can eat some of it!)
Mel, I’ve been following your blog since pretty early on, I don’t remember when exactly, and I’ve made so many delicious recipes! Thank you for the effort you put into this! I’ve loved a seeing your family grow just as much as getting great recipes and I was excited when you moved to Idaho, because I lived in Kuna! We moved and I love these little connections to a place I loved so much.
Hi Mel,
Really appreciate all your time & effort sharing your expertise
If you ever want a back to nature inexpensive beach vacation for you & your family, check out MacLeod’s Cottages, Green Bay, Nova Scotia
They have been in operation since 1929 & the same Family still operates the business, canteen, ie ; homemade everything, coconut cream pie, etc
There’s a beach, Crescent Beach, minutes away that you can drive on, 1 & 1/2 miles long
Mel, you are one of our top go to sites for recipes, we only have 2 or 3, & you are tops
We also have some Family recipes that we are willing to share with you, so you can share & enjoy
Keep well
Charles , Val, Anna & Connie Cook
charlesrcook@icloud.com
1-902-527-7608
Green Bay
Nova Scotia
I’m sure I’ve followed you for at least a decade! You are, for sure, one of my favorite food bloggers. With five kids myself, your recipes fit my family life so well, so often. I’ve definitely got a lot of your recipes on repeat. Thanks for your amazing work that helps me get excited about cooking and baking!
All I can say is thank you for sticking around. I’ve been a silent benefactor the last ten years of all the goodness you’ve created and rarely comment. Sorry! But your real life approach and real food have blessed my family and my confidence. Thanks Mel.
Hi Mel
Congratulations on 15 years of blogging!
I use a lot of your recipes and keep them in a folder.
Just wanted to add my congratulations from Canadian reader!
You’re a household name around here! “You know Mel?” Yeah-I speak about you like you’re a neighbor, and the family know exactly who I’m talking about. Thanks for all your recipes and for normalizing hiding in my pantry while eating chocolate chips!
I love love love reading your posts and i use your recipes 2-3 times a week. I essentially already have your “cookbook” because my 3 ring binder cookbook is full of mostly…well YOUR recipes! Ive been with you for about half your time on here and you have given me so much more confidence in cooking and baking! Your tutorial boot camp for pie crust was hands down amazing because my first pie crust last week turned out amazing!
Last week i was talking to my husband about a new recipe and i mentioned “its from Mel.” He assumed this was a friend, and i smiled and he recognized i was talking about you! . We mention you around here like we know you friend! Keep up the great work! I appreciate your humor and candor ❤️!
I’ve been a loyal reader for 13 years (starting as a newlywed). My husband and I now have two kids of our own. Your recipes are still family favorites! Thank you!
Love you! Love your blog! Love how real you are! Just so grateful you keep bringing us amazing recipes, fun stories, and so much love! ❤️❤️❤️
Hi Mel, I don’t care how you do it, I am just so grateful that you do.
You don’t know how many times you have saved my butt, so I am truly grateful. I have been reading your blog for years I enjoy your stories, love the pictures of your farm animals.
You are just one awesome chick!
Perla
This is one of the few blogs that I have followed and loved for many years. Your wonderful recipes and genuine authenticity is a joy to observe. I love how you remind all of us that life, although full of blessings, is often stressful, sad or messy. But in times of need there are always chocolate chip cookies.
You are the real deal Mel! Your authenticity and the unique way you blog makes you stand out from the crowd in the best of ways. I’m a loyalist.
Congratulations on 15 years!! You are awesome and your blog is the only one I check each Monday morning. It’s like a little gift when you post a new recipe! Thanks for all of your hard work! Also, if you could perfect and post a white cake recipe, that would be amazing!
My family always teases and says that they are going to ask you to give my eulogy st my funeral one day. I talk about you and your recipes as if we are real life friends. Which I am confident we would be if we lived by each other. Thank you for blogging and sharing your recipes. I’ve been around for the last 15 years and I plan on being here for 15 more!! You are the best. Thank you for sharing real life – it helps us moms out here just trying to keep up with life and some how get food on the table.
Hi Mel, I don’t comment very much on your blog but I do visit this website almost every single day and have for years! I love hearing about your hustle and you are proof that content and authenticity really matter. Plus also food. I’ve not told you this before but in my family, you are so well-known you have a nickname. My seven year old son dubbed you Evil Mel after I ambushed him with yet ANOTHER new recipe from your site (which we all loved, obviously). Now in my closest circles we affectionately refer to you this way.
I would love you to do another run of the aprons, and I would love a new flavor of caramels recipe! I make your vanilla, chocolate, cinnamon, and licorice caramels every December. King Arthur Flour has an apple cider recipe made with a reduction. Sounds tasty, don’t you think?
Even if your someday cookbook has recipes in it already avail on the blog (so does Gina Homolka’s, and I buy every single one she cranks out!), I would buy and gift it 10xs over. Your efforts have meant the world to me and my family and our bellies!
Finally, you are so right about the readers and commenters on this website. I scrolled frantically after making the peppermint bark cheesecake for Thanksgiving last week, certain I had messed it up, and bless their hearts!! All the reviews and tips saved me from a spiral. It was so crazy delicious, my family was in freaking ecstasy. Thank you. I love you, and not in a creepy stalker way.
This post is really interesting, I am more familiar now with how a blog works.
You keep doing you! I love your recipes and have followed you for a long time because you seem to keep it real. Not trendy, but with genuine care for what a person or family would like and consider practical to cook.
I really enjoy your recipes!
Thank you so much!
I love love your recipes. Perfection comes to my mind when I think about your dishes. Congratulations, and I hope you keep sharing your talent with Us , so we can half as talented as you are!
Congratulations, Mel! I love your blog and several of of your recipes are favorites in my family. Thanks for keeping it real. Looking forward to cooking along with you for many years to come. (-:
Your recipes are awesome and I have shared your website with many people!! I think a cookbook would be great!! Including entrees, breads , cookies and other desserts. My first and fav is the French bread recipe.. I make it every week and share with many friends!! God bless!
Just want to add another voice to the many comments thanking you for all you do! I’ve used more of your recipes than I can count, and now both of my daughters look to your site first if they want to make something. Yours is the only food blog I continue to use on a weekly bases all these years later! And it’s because of the great recipes combined with a really approachable person! Thanks Mel!
Hi Mel! I started following your blog back in 2010ish. I can honestly say you taught me how to cook! Now I have a binder full of recipes that I go back to over and over again. I have so many i love that I rarely try new ones because then my favorites wouldn’t get to show up in the rotation as often. I also just love your relatable writing style and it feels like we are friends even if only through the virtual world. Thanks for not quitting and maintaining your presence on the web!
You have always been and continue to be my favorite resource for recipes. Thanks so much!!!
I haven’t been here all 15 years, but it has been more than a few. Thank you for all the recipes, tips, inspirations and thoughts. You truly are a blessing to the blogging world. You definitely are appreciated in my household, for your words, as well as your fod.
I don’t usually comment but I have been following your blog since shortly after I got married 13 years ago and didn’t know how to cook anything! I love your recipes so much and always come to your website to search for a recipe before pinterest or googling it. Most times I can find exactly what I am looking for, and some have become family favorites! Thank you so much for all the yummy recipes over the years!
Thanks for continuing to do what you do! And I LOVE that you keep it real, it makes such a huge difference. And if you ever made a cookbook I’ll be first on the presale list! I have a lot of your recipes I look up all the time but there’s something comforting about looking at a book not just phone ☺️. Though how you’d ever choose which ones to put in it I don’t know!
Mel, you’re my favorite blogger and #1 source for tested, scrumptious recipes. I l-o-v-e your blog! Thank you for all you do and share; for being real and a woman of faith. God bless you and your family and Merry Christmas!