Not Arf! Ahh ha! Set the sounds going before you check out the MyDish Top Ten Recipes for October 2009. Get that Alan ‘Fluff’ Freeman vibe going.
4) Halloween Butternut Squash and Pumpkin Soup
8 ) Traditional Lancashire Hotpot
Pick of the Pops: The MyDish October Top 10
November 9th, 2009Pumpkins Galore!
October 30th, 2009My husband is a recycling nut and all our veggie waste goes to the bottom of the garden where he and the kids have made compost units out of pallets and bits of old wood. Last year we did the Halloween thing and all the waste as usual went to the bottom of the garden.
This spring, when Kenny was doing the front flower bed and he put his own compost onto the top soil and a few weeks later it grew into what we thought was a jungle of weeds. My dad came by and said he thought we should get our boys to do a bit of gardening and tidy up the front flower bed. To our surprise Tom came back and showed us vine tomatoes, potatoes and about 20 pumpkins that had grown from the waste in the compost. The result has been a bumper crop of pumpkins we’ll be using for Halloween!
We have also made so much pumpkin soup for the winter with all sorts of different variations including ginger, coriander, turmeric and someone showed us a really nice finishing touch – you can fry a thin slice of pumpkin and then bake it to decorate the soup
So, if you’re carving out a pumpkin this Halloween, don’t waste the insides. MyDish has loads of pumpkin recipes for you and remember it’s very much like butternut squash so those recipes work for pumpkin too. Enjoy your pumpkins!
We *heart* the Green Granny
October 26th, 2009Barbara is Britain’s Green Granny courtesy of Oxfam. We love this video from her showing how to use leftover, stale bread. Go Barbara!
Getting More Recipe Views
October 14th, 2009We’re constantly tweaking the way that MyDish works and especially how recipes appear in search results. We want visitors to the site to find the recipe they want as quickly as possible. In the past few weeks, quite a few people have asked me how they can ensure that their recipes are viewed by as many people as possible.
Here are some tips:
The Recipe Title is vital
One of the most important aspects of your recipes that helps it get found is the title. So ‘cottage pie’ is fine but more detail is better: ‘easy cottage pie with beef mince’ or ‘vegetarian cottage pie with lentils’ or ‘quick cottage pie for the family’. The added info gives the search engine a bit more to play with. As long as it’s accurate and relevant, add it.
We love recipes that are called something like ‘Granny’s winter soup’ and ‘Donna’s killer dessert’ but personal titles don’t necessarily help people find you. Try adding some of the major ingredients to the title to make it ‘Granny’s winter soup with lamb, carrots and leeks’ or ‘Donna’s killer dessert: white chocolate cheesecake’. If in doubt, if it’s relevant, add more details.
Pictures
In search results, visitors to MyDish love to see a picture of what they’re looking for and recipes with snaps really do attract more attention. If you can, add a pic to your recipe to draw in more readers.
Add more details
On the second page of the Recipe Input process, you have an opportunity to tag your recipes by course type (starter, main course etc) and also by recipe type (vegetarian, family recipe etc). Adding these extra fields means we can offer up your recipes to more browsers, if they’re relevant. If you want to add more more detail to recipes you’ve already posted, don’t forget that you can edit your recipes any time.
A curry beats a bunch of flowers
September 29th, 2009You know when you have done something completely out of order? You are in the wrong and you can make many excuses: bad day at work, awful traffic on the way home, nothing in its right place at home. But really, I’d had a stressful day and I just went bang!
It happened to me last week and when I took it all out on my nearest and dearest (my husband) he rightly wouldn’t speak to me all night. So rather than getting into a big debate about it the next day, I decided to take some radical action. I went home the day after (another long day) with a completely new recipe – and cooked his favourite, an Indian Curry.
I was looking through the MyDish recipes and different sections and couldn’t decide what to make and then I knew that the only thing that would work was a curry. I like Thai curries but am only just getting into Indian Curries: I have never cooked an Indian Curry at home and have definitely never done one using all the spices from scratch. But I thought it was worthy of the apology needed – I chose Anitak’s Authentic Chicken Curry.
It wasn’t as tricky as I’d feared and the results were sensational, so I’m looking forward to trying some more Indian recipes. Thankfully my husband Kenny accepted my apology and it shows the way to a man’s heart – and forgiveness, is through his tummy. Mission accomplished.
Hooray! The kids are back at school!
September 22nd, 2009The kids are back at school and all I can say is “Hooray!” I have 3 boys of school age (four in total if you include my husband) and I’m glad that we’ve returned to the structure and reality of term-time.
I know this might annoy some of the ‘mummy brigade’ but I think the Summer holidays are just way too long. The kids get bored and start nidgering each other and when they are back at school they are with their friends doing lots of fun stuff. School challenges them and they return happily tired at the end of the day.
What does it mean for me from a food point of view? I have only one kid at primary school now so I’m only making a packed lunch for 1. It’s tricky keeping them healthy and interesting and I’m always on the look out for new ideas.
But where I really need inspiration is with the evening meal. They come home after Rugby training starving hungry and as they walk through the door the first thing they want to do is eat. I struggle to get them to try different things. I often use MyDish for ideas and tonight I’m searching the family favourite recipes and we are going for beef casserole - enough to feed 4 hungry boys!
We will all sit down together for our meal around 6.30 ish and afterwards it is a marathon of homework and showering and reading with the little one. But we still manage to eat together and stop for half an hour to catch on each others day.
Farewell Keith Floyd
September 16th, 2009Hi there, Dan here. I wanted to take over Carol’s blog and write a post about the legendary Keith Floyd who died yesterday aged 65.
As someone who grew up in the eighties, Floyd was often on the box cooking up elaborate and exotic meals from all over the world. It was before the current vogue for British cuisine so it was natural that Keith Floyd would look overseas for inspiration.
And in so many ways that’s what attracted me as a young boy. He’d race off to somewhere wonderful in a car or a boat or a plane. We weren’t usually being taken to meet a Prince or an illustrious personage but rather the proprietor of the local taverna. The aristocracy can’t be trusted with the proper grub Keith had his eye on rustling up. Floyd cooked his dishes up in the village square and not the squire’s kitchen.
Keith Floyd was so different from the other chefs on the TV at the time. Most were cooking everyday domestic stuff and it was all aimed at housewives. It was usually little more than a home economics lessons on the telly. Floyd was different.
For a lot of chaps I know, Keith Floyd single-handedly persuaded them to cook. Here was an exuberantly dressed bloke, with a fine command of language, putting together amazing hearty meals. Chaos often ensued.
Floyd was flames and flamboyance to us little boys of the eighties. And as we’ve grown up, we have come to love his philosophy. It’s one glass of wine for the pot and another for the chef. Up here, Clive. Let’s have a little drinky!
But at the heart of his cooking was authenticity. Amazing ingredients cooked well and served up with pride. I was flicking through one of his books earlier and was not surprised to see how many of his dishes are served up simply with fresh bread, salad or seasonal veg and that’s how it should be
A clip is in order, and I looked at loads before choosing this one. Unusually it’s indoors and with an another chef. But it captures Keith Floyd’s blustering, saucy style so well, I couldn’t resist it.
Back to Business as Usual
September 11th, 2009It has been an amazing few weeks since we were on Dragons Den. During and just after the show, the site traffic surged and for the week afterwards we saw a massive increase in visitors. Even though we did not enjoy a spike from a repeat (this was cancelled because of the athletics) the ‘iplayer effect’ definitely meant that people were watching throughout the seven days after the show.
We’ve also received thousands of email and calls from people who saw the show. Many were just wishing us luck and saying how they enjoyed the programme but there have also been some promising leads for business partnerships and developments. We’ve just about cleared the backlog and I’m overwhelmed by all the lovely messages you sent.
Since then we’ve been thrilled to be featured in a whole host of blogs and forums as well as in traditional media. There was a good piece in the Sunday Telegraph featuring some of my previous blog post.
Emma Jones of EnterpriseNation, a resource for people running home based business, also interviewed me and you can find that here.
I was also interviewed by eCommerce blogger Trevor Ginn on his blog, www.trevorginn.com. Like us, he’s based at the Truman Brewery in London. As well as blogging Trevor also runs the online baby business Hello Baby and likes cooking Shepherds pie, lasagne and moussaka.
And now as the excitement of Dragons Den fades into the past, we’ve got plenty to be getting along with. And we’ve got so many more recipes to try too!
My Experience in the Dragons’ Den
August 13th, 2009I have often watched Dragons Den and seen the terrible pitches some people make and thought : You are rubbish. Why don’t you learn how to present properly? It was not until I ventured to Pinewood Studios one day for my own turn facing the Dragons in their Den that I realised what a terrifying and stressful experience it is. I can honestly say it was the scariest day of my life.
I arrived at the studios early one morning to be recorded walking up the famous stairs and then nothing. I had to wait for hours and hours, nearly all day, in a hot room. I wasn’t allowed to talk to any other contestants because, I was told, it might scare me. It made me even more petrified! Whenever you needed the loo, a member of the crew ensured the coast was clear so we didn’t meet anyone on the way. As time passed, I became more nervous. I guess that’s the point. And in the end I didn’t even get to do my pitch. I had to go home and come back again the next morning after very little sleep.
The actual pitch was hell. I am an experienced and confident presenter and my pitch was rubbish. My throat closed up and I literally couldn’t speak. The enormity of the event got to me. Suddenly I was struck by how important these few minutes all caught on camera were for me, my business and even my family. I kept thinking to myself: “You are being rubbish girl.”
When the time came for the Dragons to ask me questions, and I had to start thinking on my feet, I came into my own. I know my business inside out and I stopped thinking about the situation and just answered the questions. Everyone has always said to me how important it is to ‘know your numbers’ I think that’s nonsense. Learning your business figures parrot fashion doesn’t work. It’s important to feel and understand your business perfectly so however the questions go, you can stand there and give a reasonable answer and defend your thoughts because you know what you are talking about.
What I hated about the whole thing is the combativeness. Some really enthusiastic, capable people, who might need some business support or expertise, were torn apart. I think people trying to set up businesses should be celebrated even if some of their ideas are impractical or silly. There are lots of people who have ideas but I really admire people who get off their behinds and have a go.
Sometimes, the ideas are great but the contestants don’t have the business acumen they need to take it further. What they do need is a good team on board to help them make it happen. Real business doesn’t have to be combative. But I suppose it makes great telly.
I didn’t see the programme before it aired. So I had no idea how I would come across. Lots of my friends wanted to watch it with me. But because 2 hours of Q&A and negotiations were cut down to 10 minutes and I had no idea how they had made me look, I had to watch it with my family first.
What do you think? How do you think it went?
MyDish.co.uk is on Dragons’ Den this week
August 10th, 2009Hi everyone,
Carol here. I just wanted to let you know that I am on Dragons Den on Wednesday (the 12th) this week. Tune in at 9pm to find out how it goes. I have been sworn to secrecy as to whether any of the Dragons dig deep and invest in MyDish but in any case, as ever, Dragons’ Den is a really exciting programme. I hope you’ll tune in.
The preview and more information is all up there on the BBC website, so get a sneak peak and whet your appetite.
Going into the Den and facing the Dragons was, with question, the scariest thing I have ever done in my life and I’ll be back here blogging about my experience of being on the show and what it means for MyDish. I’ll also be on Twitter.
Cheers,
Carol