There's a Tear in my Eye - An Announcement

First the recipe for the photo above before we get to my announcement...


4 Talapia Filets
1 Vadallia Onion, sliced thick and cut into quarter size pieces
6 Sweet Peppers, seeded and sliced thin
1 Tomato
Seasonings


Sweat the onions and peppers over medium heat.  Once there is a puddle of liquid formed under the veggies, poach the fish (just lay them right on top of the onions and peppers).  Cover and continue to cook for @5 minutes.  The fish I was cooking was thin Talapia, and was fork tender done in just that 5 minutes.


The Tomatoes are fresh, raw and just a little of my "Sodom and Gomorrah" Low salt substitute (Salt, Garlic Flakes and Black & White Sesame Seeds).  Fish was seasoned with salt and pepper and some smoked paprika mostly for color.


Easy Peasy, and a tasty low calorie healthy weeknight quickie...


But, hey, as good as that sounds (and tasted), it would not bring a tear to my eye...


This will...


I am a dot-com guy!  


I am a working man!  


My long delayed "project" has finally come to be!!!


I could ramble philosophically about someone my age (older than dirt) or someone returning to the workforce after several years (almost 10) of comfortable retirement.


Instead I will share what actually does bring a tear to me eye... Food blogging has changed my life.  When I started, I was barely able to even boil water.  Cooking was an obligation to "do the least I could do" for my wife (with her inconvenient day job).  I started blogging in the "Julie & Julia" era of growth in the hobby.  What was a diversion became a hobby and now an obsession.  


Personally, I can now run the category whenever food topics come up on Jeopardy.  I fear no recipe, no technique nor ingredient.  I've come a long way from adding a little honey to butter to make honey butter (my first post).


But more than a sense of individual accomplishment, I have come to embrace the community of food bloggers.  All of us blog for a variety of reasons.  But just the idea of boldly hanging it out there is something we can and should be proud of.  There are a million cookbooks.  There are dozens of professional websites with trained chef created recipes.  Yet we think we have something to contribute...


We do.


Daily, we accept the challenge of cooking within a budget...  Cooking a variety of meals so our food is not repetitive nor boring.  We challenge ourselves with new ingredients, new techniques.  We dress our presentations to be as attractive as possible for our limited audience of tasters, and to stand out to our readers  But we also share and contribute to a community.


And it is for that community that I am introducing ...

eRecipeCards.com

(before you go there, please read the limitation note at the bottom of this post)

On the surface, it resembles the "food Porn" sites that encourage magazine quality photos.  In fact, eRecipeCards.com is designed to be inclusive.  While top quality photos are a goal for us all, more important is the recipe.  The site is moderated, with each post being looked at and approved.  But about the only way your post will be rejected is if the recipe is not original (or credited to the original inspiration (go ahead and show off those Food Network recipes, especially if you add/alter something to make it your own).


But, of equal importance is a quick way to look over the contributions of the food blogging community.  Take a quick look at their work (photo, title and brief description).  If you want to see more, there is an easy way to see the complete original blog post (photos and title have links to the original blog).  And best of all, if it is something you will want to see again (is there a bigger honor than to have another blogger recreate your recipe), you can create an eRecipeBox to hold the eRecipeCards you like best.


OK, I am sure I will be talking about this over the next few months, but here it is, ready for my friends to BETA test the site...


Please, take a few minutes, visit the site, punch a few buttons and see how it works.


Create an account and submit a blog post.  In fact, submit several (at a minimum, what you might think of as your top ten list maybe).  Plan to make eRecipeCards.com a daily stop to see what the blogger world is up to, but also to let that world know what you are up to.


And as welcome Beta testers, I am going to ask a favor...


Suggestions... Now is the time.  If there is a feature you would like to see added, please let me know.  In fact, here's an email I guarantee will be the first email I read of each day... 

Dave@eRecipeCards.com

Drop me a note and tell me what can be improved.


Something not working right... Let me know that ASAP.  I did a run through, and it appears to be functioning.  But, as Regis says, "I am only one man".  Please help me make it perfect (and that includes spelling and grammar errors).  No issue is too small.  Same email address please.


And finally, my single known limitation...


The photo editor is being worked on, and will function MUCH better in just a couple of days.  Right now, the only photos that can be accepted are square, already sized 250X250 pixels.  If you submit something larger, you can move a box around to accept only a portion of the photo.  Please take the extra step to resize your photos square and to the 250 pixel format so your posts will look right from the start.  Like I said, it is just a matter of days before an improved version of the photo editor is added (just a couple of days).

OK... Come visit...

http://erecipecards.com/


And then drop me a note about what you think!


Dave (a working man)




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